A noted ornithologist contributes some stunning full-color illustrations and photographs to a disappointing book that introduces one bird for almost every letter of the alphabet. Children will enjoy browsing, but the information presented is often trivial and many of the illustrations appear to be recycled from other sources, e.g., a page on feathers shows 29 carefully numbered examples, without matching explanations or names. The text is pedestrian: ``C is for Cardinal. Cardinals sing `Birdy, birdy, birdy' and many other lovely songs in the spring,'' the laughing gull ``searches for just about anything to eat,'' and ``Color the Green Jay noisy, bold, and beautiful.'' (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-7893-0009-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1995
Wiley and his mother fool the powerful Hairy Man once, twice, three times, sending him fleeing back into the swamp. Since Molly Bang's 1976 rendition (bearing the same title), this deliciously scary Alabama folktale has become a storyteller favorite—but it has yet to find illustrations that do it justice. Bang's had plenty of character but were small, busy, and pale gray; Pinkney's swirling scratchboard scenes glow with color, but the paint is smeared, the figures static, and the drawing rough to the point of looking unfinished. The creature seems more comical than menacing, a big, cloven-hoofed ogre with hair like rusty steel wool, snaggly teeth, and physical proportions that change from scene to scene. Sierra (see above) and Bang drew from the same original source, and their texts are very similar; use the new as a replacement or alternative to the old—better yet, learn the story and tell it! (Picture book/folklore. 5-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-67477-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
Stinky, Smelly, Reeky, and Stenchy form a rock band and, to their delight, land a gig at the local teen center. The audience flees in disgust, but soon returns, sporting clothespins and chanting, ``Blay somb more songs . . . We lub you.'' The fetid foursome look more like badgers than skunks in the vigorously inked and brushed watercolors, and the plot seems rudimentary next to, say, Elise Primavera's The Three Dots (1993) or Graham Oakley's undeservedly scarce Frog Band stories. Still, Fair's debut shows promise and has obvious appeal to fans of The Stinky Cheese Man (1992) and other books of that odor. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-395-73572-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1996
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