Not much to love.
A book about…kindness?
It’s actually hard to say what this book is about. Sadly, it’s also difficult to find much kind to say about this convoluted story set “in the wilds of East Africa.” Digital illustrations depicting lightly anthropomorphized, talking animals are bright and engaging enough, but they fail to make up for the rambling story’s many plot holes and meandering tangents. At first, the animals are “hungry, mean, and had stopped believing in their dreams.” The ensuing pages detail a series of events in which the animals help one another out of various predicaments and in doing so find joy. This might seem like a straightforward premise, but the text confounds readers with: repeated, arbitrary refrains of “Wa-Hu-Wa-Hu-Wa-You”; uses of the (mystifyingly capitalized) word “BUFF” as an undefined compliment to mean something like “kind” (“That was really BUFF of you”); odd dung beetle jokes that don’t quite land; and a bizarre interlude that’s supposed to be sung to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus” but lacks the appropriate cadence. Closing, baffling text reads “Wa-Whoo! / Shake your pompoms, / Share big smiles, / Light your stardust, / We’ll all go miles” as several animals dance about. Ultimately, it’s a bizarre amalgamation of words, pictures, and a quasi-moral, culminating with four pages of incomprehensible backmatter prompts for extension activities and discussion.
Not much to love. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62634-600-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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