Supersaturated hues and maximum automotive whimsy make this one to pore over.
Animal drivers in wacky vehicles visit the titular garage for special repairs.
Clever Gus, a smiling pig on two legs in green coveralls, salvages lots of unusual objects, just in case. When Rico, a biker rhinoceros, putt-putts in on his scooter complaining about his inadequate seat, Gus has just the thing. He replaces it with a big green easy chair, and Rico putt-putts happily away. Next, Gina the giraffe pulls up in a compact yellow car, colorful scarves covering her long neck. She needs “warm air.” Gus comes up with a stack of oil barrels, with a hole cut out for her head, heated by a stove connected to the barrels by several pipes. Walter the walrus, in a small blue-and-white car with an open sunroof, has the opposite problem. He’s too hot. Gus fixes a tub atop the car, where Walter can cool off. Timmers’ perspective is unvarying, depicting Gus and his garage to the left of the gutter and his customers on the right. This allows readers to notice that the huge heap of junk at the far left grows smaller over the course of the day as Gus raids his stash of “bits and bobs” to make the repairs with Rube Goldberg–esque flair. The repetitive, rhyming text appears below, its refrain “This goes with that. There. Just the job!” one children will be joining in on before long.
Supersaturated hues and maximum automotive whimsy make this one to pore over. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-776570-92-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Mr. Fish’s fans can chase away any holiday “dreary-wearies” with this latest entry in the series, though it’s more likely to...
The perennially popular pout-pout fish is back with a new problem: how to find perfect gifts for all his friends.
Mr. Fish wears a “yuletide pout” in this holiday season because of his extensive shopping expectations. He wants his gifts to have “bling-zing,” to be big, bright, and perfect, “guaranteed to bring delight.” He shops till he plops but leaves the mall empty-handed “in a bout of pout-doubt.” His wise friend Miss Shimmer saves the day, with lots of craft supplies and advice about how to make his own presents “with his very own fins!” Mr. Fish finds that his simple, handmade gifts do meet his high expectations and that the camaraderie and goodwill shared with friends are the really meaningful gifts of the season. In addition to the wordplay, the text offers a calming, sensible approach to holiday gift giving with reinforcement of the value of handmade gifts. Hanna’s detailed illustrations of Mr. Fish’s watery world are filled with funny details, as when the sea creatures all hold one another’s tentacles as they celebrate the holiday. A holiday highlight is the arrival of Manta Claus, pulled in his sleigh by sea horses, of course.
Mr. Fish’s fans can chase away any holiday “dreary-wearies” with this latest entry in the series, though it’s more likely to be adults who face the holiday shopping quandary than children. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-35549-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Engaging, rewarding, and utterly delightful.
Readers count from one to 10 and then jump from there to 15, 20, and 25 in this picture book featuring creatures in the wild.
Animals and their babies take the stage in this paper-engineered tale that allows young readers to make surprise discoveries. On the first spread, they meet a bat. Lift up the precisely die-cut bat’s wing to see “1 baby / Holding on tight as they fly through the night.” Page turns are propelled by the query that concludes each and every spread: “Who has more babies than that?” Continuing to count upward, readers meet leopard cubs, owlets, fox kits, leverets, caterpillars, and many more animals. Creatively designed flaps and die cuts, as well as pages with nontraditional trims, invite young hands to lift, peek, and search: Lift leaf-shaped flaps to see “8 baby mice”; peek through tree-trunk–shaped die cuts to see a forest with “15 poults”; and turn pages shaped like verdant hills to see “2 lambs.” The rhymes are unfussy, pleasingly rhythmic, and have unfailingly flawless meter (“9 ducklings / Swimming and snacking, / Practicing quacking”). Richly colored illustrations in vivid crimson, sapphire, marble green, and copper hues feature realistic animals in their natural habitats, though most are given sleek, wide, stylized eyes. The final spread throws readers a curveball with “LOTS of spiderlings,” depicted as die-cut holes with eight legs each on the previous page—and, it turns out, many of the pages before that.
Engaging, rewarding, and utterly delightful. (Picture book/novelty. 3-6)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-32453-0
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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