Fowl play in a format calibrated for its young audience.
A duck and chicken argue over what color the page should be.
Both birds agree their white background needs color, but Cluck favors orange, while Duck prefers pink. Illustrations and text that makes heavy use of alliteration guide beginning readers through longer words—tangerines, fabulous, flamingos—as each makes a case for their chosen color. In a sequence accompanied by onomatopoeia, they try to settle things by shoving flowers—an orange tiger lily and a pink carnation—in each other’s faces. Finally, they split the book along the gutter, Cluck painting the left side orange while Duck colors the right pink. But Cluck accidentally colors orange on Duck’s side; in an attempt to fix it, Duck paints over it, and suddenly we see a new, blended color. A short rainstorm blurs the colors more, and the end result reminds a passing alligator of a sunset in the Everglades. The fowl friends offer the appreciative gator their “canvas” and roll it off the panel’s background. But that leaves them where they started, with a “dull and dreary” page—to Duck’s consternation, in a stinger joke, Cluck wants to paint it orange. Spare text, with speech bubbles and plenty of sound effects, make this ideal for youngsters still mastering reading, while the playful metafiction will keep them giggling.
Fowl play in a format calibrated for its young audience. (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-72827-198-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader!
Fun with friends makes for a great day.
Norbit, a salmon-colored worm with a pink kerchief, joyfully greets the day and everyone he encounters. “Hello, friends! It’s time for fun with the sun! Let’s play!” He and his menagerie of forest pals—including the sun, who grows limbs and descends from the sky—exuberantly engage in various forms of physical activity such as jumping, going down a slide, spinning around, and watching the clouds go by. Young readers will readily relate, as these are games that most children are familiar with. As day turns to night, Norbit says farewell to Sun and welcomes Moon with an invitation to continue the fun. Watkins has created a vivid world of movement and merriment. Her illustrations feature bright bursts of color that match the energy of the text, with most sentences ending in an exclamation point. The author/illustrator incorporates many elements that make for an ideal early-reading experience (despite the use of a contraction or two): art free from clutter, text consisting of words with only one or two syllables, and repetition and recurring bits, such as a continued game of hide-and-seek with Sun. Inspired by never-before-seen sketches from the Dr. Seuss Collection archives at the University of California San Diego, this is the first title for Seuss Studios, a new imprint for original stories from “emerging authors and illustrators” who “honor Seuss’s hallmark spirit of creativity and imagination.”
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader! (author's note) (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593646212
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Seuss Studios
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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