India the harmonica-playing elephant is so used to being the star of the Big Top that even though the circus is failing, she doesn’t take kindly to the arrival of a new trainer. Indeed, being a huge, quirt-bearing rhino wearing leopard skins and a billowing purple cloak, Oswaldo the Magnificent comes across as a rough customer in Argent’s big, bright pictures. Soon all the other animals are dancing to his tune—and he’s the one in the spotlight. Unable, or unwilling, to learn new tricks, India soon finds herself out of the show entirely. One night after a semi-intentional mishap she flees, but, cannier than he looks, Oswaldo draws her back by convincing her that she would be an even bigger star as a harmonica-playing elephant...on roller skates. The plot doesn’t really hang together, but the all-animal cast, which is posed on two legs, dressed in circus garb and placed right up front in every scene, will draw young audiences out of their seats to check out the circus action. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-86508-596-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2008
Dunbar (Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep, 1998, etc.) joins Helme Heine (The Most Wonderful Egg in the World, 1983) and Mary Jane Auch (The Easter Egg Farm, 1992) in serving up with gusto a cast of unusual egg producers. When Dora the duck announces “Tomorrow is Eggday,” Pogson the pig, Humphrey the horse, and Gideon the goat are puzzled as to how they will lay a pig egg, a horse egg, and a goat egg in their respective efforts to win the contest. The instructive Hetty Hen, a true egg-layer, quickly sets them straight, lending her own eggs, which they decorate for the contest. As expected, Dora the duck’s own egg hatches overnight, and she declares a new holiday—Duckling Day. Cabrera transforms the farmyard plot with a pleasingly free-form style and candy-bright colors. Every page bristles with color; brush strokes, dots, blots, and thumbprints create multi-layered scenes that fairly sing. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: March 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1510-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
In this worthy packet of information about famous players from the Negro Leagues, Winter’s narrative is marred only by a comic-book tone and exclamation points that detract from otherwise spectacular statistics and stories. Every player gets a page of text designed to resemble a baseball card, faced with a full-page portrait; some of these are close-up studies, others are fluid action shots. The illustrations have the deep contrasts and the sharp overexposed edges of antique, hand-tinted photographs. Winter provides highlights and quotations, and tells whether or not the player is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Readers will learn that Josh Gibson was the only player to hit a home run out of Yankee Stadium; that Bingo DeMoss always played second base with a toothpick in his mouth; and that Martin Dihigo is the only player to be elected to baseball halls of fame in four countries (the US, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela). He closes the text with his ultimate all-star teams for the American and National Leagues. (Picture book/biography. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-39464-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
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