A rollicking, loving tribute to Dr. Seuss (to whose memory this is dedicated) and to books and libraries. Here’s a rhyme that works, without clunking but with inspired silliness in the best Seussian meter. Librarian Molly McGrew, resplendent in hot-pink trousers and a tropical striped jacket, drives the bookmobile into the zoo, with delightful results. The animals become fascinated by reading, and by words, and she strives to satisfy them: tall books for the giraffes—titled Skyscrapers, Redwoods, and Basketball in Brown’s clever take—books in Chinese for the pandas, “And llamas read dramas while eating their llunches.” The insects write haiku, critiqued by the scorpion—not only a lesson in verse, but quite hilarious: the Dung Beetle writes: “Roll a ball of dung— / Any kind of poo will do— / Baby beetle bed.” The scorpion sniffs, “Stinks.” Brown’s paintings, rich in pattern and detail and wonderful color, show graceful, cheery animals. A storytime spectacular. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2004
ISBN: 0-375-82538-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2004
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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