The book’s charming paintings will draw in animal lovers, and the poems’ catchy, irregular rhythms will encourage recitation.
Australian author Lois Nicholls (Bye-bye Bikini, 2018, etc.) and illustrator Lara Nicholls (Aussie, Actually, 2012), a mother-daughter team, celebrate lovable canines in rhyme in their picture book.
Tarna, a golden retriever, pals around with her human friend until he realizes that the dog’s gotten “quite smelly”—possibly from being in the paddock past the pond. Kane, a Great Dane, is “Not a pony...that’s BALONEY!” In nine rhyming poems with full-color paintings, the Nichollses introduce readers to a range of different dogs. The pups are of varied breeds, including apparent daisy-dog mutts and a goldendoodle (aka a groodle) as well as a more common Jack Russell terrier and a beagle. They all have diverse personalities and expressions: French bulldog Philippe loves cafes and “bling”; beagle Bonny is an adventurous traveler. The paintings are realistic and endearing, and each features a tiny bee for hidden-object searchers. The poems have intriguingly offbeat rhyme schemes; they may require practice for proper emphasis when read aloud. Some words are italicized, boldfaced, or capitalized, a distracting device that may confuse some newly independent readers. Vocabulary terms such as “torte” are defined in footnotes while other potentially unfamiliar words, such as the aforementioned “paddock,” are left unexplained.
The book’s charming paintings will draw in animal lovers, and the poems’ catchy, irregular rhythms will encourage recitation.Pub Date: May 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9804868-6-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: bee kind press
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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