Well meant, not thought through.
A hands- and butts-on invitation to do science.
On the way to a basic version of the scientific method outlined in an appendix, Zong has lab-coated professors Bear and Frog urge readers to perform a series of “experiments” to find out if you can literally “do everything with books,” and then turn pages to observe the results. In the very simple cartoon illustrations the two researchers generally take a beating as they are shaken, turned upside down, bellowed at (“If you’re in a library, only yell a little”—whatever that means), and sat on. This last is a distinctly bad idea if the book’s being read on a tablet, and things go further awry when young readers/researchers are offered a lollipop—not to lick (which is theoretically feasible, if unsanitary) but as a reward which, being only an image, can’t be taken. What, there’s something books can’t do? Off scurry the two professors to modify their hypothesis. Scientific enquiry gets a more methodical showing in Camille Andros’ Charlotte the Scientist Is Squished! illustrated by Brianne Farley (2017), and budding experimenters eager to put their reading through the wringer will get more satisfaction from Dave Eggers’ Abner & Ian Get Right-Side Up, illustrated by Laura Park (2019), or Hervé Tullet’s inimitable Press Here (2011). (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17–inch double-page spreads viewed at 48% of actual size.)
Well meant, not thought through. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-22580-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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