The expression “when pigs fly” is given a new twist as Norbert the pig dreams of swimming—not in just any pond, lake, or ocean, but the English Channel.
Norbert trains day after day and dreams night after night until he feels ready. Despite the snickering, snorting, and squealing of the other pigs, Norbert dons his gear and announces he is ready. There’s just one problem: where is the English Channel? If he can’t find it, he can’t swim it! Deflated, he strips off his goggles and flippers and plods back to the farm. Wait! What’s this? A sign with an arrow pointing to “Norbert’s Channel”—a stream on the farm the other pigs have marked for him. Ahh, a dream come true. But is Norbert done dreaming? Of course not. The last page shows him summiting a snow-covered mountain—presumably Everest. Bucci employs visible, broad brushstrokes and vivid colors to define the images and create a glossy patina. The technique is somewhat unusual, lending an eye-popping energy. While most kids will not know (or possibly even care about) the English Channel, they will find Norbert’s antics to get there mildly humorous, and they will appreciate his friends’ affectionate indulgence.
The message of dreaming big is secondary to the storyline, but Norbert is no stick-in-the-mud. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58536-959-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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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. 29, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Spending a day with Gong Gong doesn’t sound like very much fun to May.
Gong Gong doesn’t speak English, and May doesn’t know Chinese. How can they have a good day together? As they stroll through an urban Chinatown, May’s perpetually sanguine maternal grandfather chats with friends and visits shops. At each stop, Cantonese words fly back and forth, many clearly pointed at May, who understands none of it. It’s equally exasperating trying to communicate with Gong Gong in English, and by the time they join a card game in the park with Gong Gong’s friends, May is tired, hungry, and frustrated. But although it seems like Gong Gong hasn’t been attentive so far, when May’s day finally comes to a head, it is clear that he has. First-person text gives glimpses into May’s lively thoughts as they evolve through the day, and Gong Gong’s unchangingly jolly face reflects what could be mistaken for blithe obliviousness but is actually his way of showing love through sharing the people and places of his life. Through adorable illustrations that exude humor and warmth, this portrait of intergenerational affection is also a tribute to life in Chinatown neighborhoods: Street vendors, a busker playing a Chinese violin, a dim sum restaurant, and more all combine to add a distinctive texture.
A multilayered, endearing treasure of a day. (glossary) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77321-429-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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Through 20 short poems, Maestro Mouse invites readers to meet a series of animals who have lessons to impart and a symphony to perform.
Brown, author of The DaVinci Code (2003) and other wildly popular titles for adults, here offers young listeners a poetry collection accompanied by music: a “symphony” performed, for readers equipped with an audio device and an internet connection, by the Zagreb Festival Orchestra. From the introduction of the conductor and the opening “Woodbird Welcome” to the closing “Cricket Lullaby,” the writer/composer uses poems made of three to eight rhyming couplets, each line with four strong beats, to introduce the animals who will be revealed in the final double gatefold as the players in an all-animal orchestra. Each poem also contains a lesson, reinforced by a short message (often on a banner or signpost). Thus, “When life trips them up a bit, / Cats just make the best of it” concludes the poem “Clumsy Kittens,” which is encapsulated by “Falling down is part of life. The best thing to do is get back on your feet!” The individual songs and poems may appeal to the intended audience, but collectively they don’t have enough variety to be read aloud straight through. Nor does the gathering of the orchestra provide a narrative arc. Batori’s cartoon illustrations are whimsically engaging, however. They include puzzles: hard-to-find letters that are said to form anagrams of instrument names and a bee who turns up somewhere in every scene.
Aims high but falls flat. (Complete composition not available for review.) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12384-3
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Rodale Kids
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
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