A delightful, onomatopoeic introduction to the interactive sounds of awakening animals.
A mouse inadvertently ignites an early-morning chain reaction.
As a breeze tickles his ear, a small mouse wakes with a wee “SQUEAK,” disturbing chipmunks in the branches above. Their chitter-chatter dislodges pine cones that “KERPLOP” into the river, prompting resting trout to leap with a “SPLISH” and a “SPLASH.” This awakens a sleeping elk, whose antlers bump a cottonwood tree with a resounding “KA-BONK!” In response, an eagle nesting in the tree takes flight with a “WAH-WHOOOOSH,” waking bear cubs in a cave, which causes their grumpy mother to “GRRRRRRR!” A nearby wolf pack joins in with yips and long, drawn-out howls, triggering a bighorn lamb to disturb loose rocks and gravel with a “RUMBLE BUMBLE BOOOOOOM!” An irritated bison bellows a loud “ARRRGRUMMMPHH!” Soon all creatures in the valley are awake and participating in a boisterous cacophony. Sprightly double-page spreads, realistically rendered with bold outlines of black gouache digitally colored in Photoshop, create the ideal backdrop for this unfolding medley. From the opening spread of the barely visible mouse asleep beneath a towering tree foregrounding a vista of river, meadow, and bluffs, each page turn artfully leads from one amusing event to the next, highlighting each animal in its habitat, while prominent placement of animal sounds in large font reinforces the auditory theme.
A delightful, onomatopoeic introduction to the interactive sounds of awakening animals. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51815-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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