A gentle and slightly surreal celebration of the bond between child and toy.
A small child finds the best companionship in a toy bunny: animate, lively, and present always in both imagination and life.
The bunny asks, “What’s your favorite thing in the world?” The child responds by enumerating not one but many. The bunny helps the child find the right socks and blows on the oatmeal to cool it (the bunny likes toast and jam). They both like to play, and sometimes, they both like to watch. The child loves to look at the stars. “Someday we will count them all!” The child loves the bunny’s stories, too, sitting on a full-sized bed while the bunny reads aloud from its tiny bed with the carrot-patterned quilt. The digital and collage images are matte and flat, making wonderful use of pattern: a scattering of autumn leaves of many colors in the air and in a pile that the bunny jumps into; the square-tiled floors in the kitchen and bathroom; the profusion of stars on the last page. The child has a dark pageboy and a rosy-peach complexion. No adults appear, but a few other children do, with no obvious attempt to create a consciously diverse cast. The bunny, dressed only in shorts, does cartwheels on the front endpapers and wraps itself in the carrot quilt on the back.
A gentle and slightly surreal celebration of the bond between child and toy. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84780-685-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade.
An ant explores her world.
Addie Ant’s ready for adventure. Despite some trepidation about leaving the Tomato Bed, where she lives with her aunt, she plucks up her courage and ventures forth across the garden to the far side of the shed. On her journey, she meets her pal Lewis Ladybug, who greets her warmly, points the way, and offers sage advice. When Addie arrives at her destination, she’s welcomed by lovely Beatrix Butterfly and enjoys an “ant-tastic” helping of watermelon. Beatrix also provides Addie with take-home treats and a map for the “Cricket Express,” which will take her straight home. Arriving at the terminal, Addie’s delighted to meet another friend, Cleo Cricket, whose carriage service returns Addie home in “two hops.” After eating a warm tomato soup dinner, Addie falls asleep and dreams of future exploits. Adorable though not terribly original, this story brims with sensuous pleasures, both textual and visual. Kids who declare that they dislike fruits or veggies may find their mouths watering at the mentions and sights of luscious tomatoes, peas, beans, watermelons, berries, and other foodstuffs; insect-averse readers may likewise think differently after encountering these convivial, wide-eyed characters. And those flowers and herbs everywhere! The highlights are the colors that burst from the pages. Addie’s an endearing, empowering character who reassures children they’ll be able to take those first independent steps successfully.
Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade. (author’s note about ants) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781797228914
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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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