Delightful wordplay.
A lively exploration of animal names with matching action words.
Opening with “Two yaks yak loudly” and closing with “Hounds hound a celebrity,” this introduction to 16 animals with names that also act as action verbs proves playful and entertaining. Each animal’s name and its corresponding sound-alike verb are used in a short sentence printed in large, bold type, with the verb’s phonetic pronunciation and definition printed in smaller type below. Dynamic, colorful, comical double-page illustrations add a surprising, lighthearted visual context for each pair. For “a duck ducks just in time,” the illustration reveals a duck on a construction site wearing a hard hat ducking to avoid a beam. Illustrating “a bear bears bread and butter,” a bear working as a waiter in a restaurant totes a tray of bakery treats. And when “a bat bats last,” a bat wearing a baseball helmet prepares to swing at an approaching ball. Rendered with visual and verbal panache, other unexpected and amusing scenarios include a perch perching in a tree to dive, cranes craning their necks to see in a movie theater, and flounders floundering as they attempt to ride bicycles. Young readers may need some help in understanding a few of them, as with the bug that does not pester others but rather eavesdrops via a listening device. Some readers may cavil at the depiction of bald eagles in the “hawk hawks hats” scene.
Delightful wordplay. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5037-5709-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sunbird Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on.
Sharpson offers so-fish-ticated readers a heads up about the true terror of the seas.
The title says it all. Our unseen narrator is just fine with other animals: mammals. Reptiles. Even birds. But fish? Don’t trust them! First off, the rules always seem to change with fish. Some live in fresh water; some reside in salt water. Some have gills, while others have lungs. You can never see what they’re up to, since they hang out underwater, and they’re always eating those poor, innocent crabs. Soon, the narrator introduces readers to Jeff, a vacant-eyed yellow fish—but don’t be fooled! Jeff’s “the craftiest fish of all.” All fish are, apparently, hellbent on world domination, the narrator warns. “DON’T TRUST FISH!” Finally, at the tail end, we get a sly glimpse of our unreliable narrator. Readers needn’t be ichthyologists to appreciate Sharpson’s meticulous comic timing. (“Ships always sink at sea. They never sink on land. Isn’t that strange?”) His delightful text, filled to the brim with jokes that read aloud brilliantly, pairs perfectly with Santat’s art, which shifts between extreme realism and goofy hilarity. He also fills the book with his own clever gags (such as an image of Gilligan’s Island’s S.S. Minnow going down and a bottle of sauce labeled “Surly Chik’n Srir’racha’r”).
A ribald and uproarious warning to those unschooled in fishy goings-on. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780593616673
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children.
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format.
Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.”
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-742-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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