This charmer demands and rewards repeat visits, and children will find unexpected pleasures every time.
Some rabbits sail down a river looking for a lost toy duck.
As Bunny plays with her toy in the small river near her home, it floats away; her two brothers immediately join the search effort. Adventure ensues as the trio pursues the yellow, red-scarfed duck in their boat, following the river as it courses through forests, pastures, waterfalls, flower fields, and farmland and past assorted structures. Alas, the duck consistently eludes them. This is where the reading/listening audience comes in, invited from the outset to collaborate in the Where’s Waldo?–type investigation. And the enterprise is playfully challenging, seeing as how the duck isn’t always willing to be located too easily. Expect kids to have great fun poring over the numerous tiny, sometimes complex, details incorporated into the delicate, colorful, busy line illustrations that fill every spread—along with myriad other anthropomorphic animal protagonists; information about how those characters fit into the grand scheme of things appears on an introductory spread before the book’s title page. There’s just enough minimal, pithy text per spread, often with tantalizing hints to the duck’s possible whereabouts, but the illustrations, naturally, are the main focus and draw. The ending presents two surprises—hint: The journey wasn’t exactly what it seemed—and a hitherto-unheralded creature invites readers to return to the illustrations and locate it.
This charmer demands and rewards repeat visits, and children will find unexpected pleasures every time. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-60537-518-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn.
A young owl achieves his grand ambition.
Owl, an adorably earnest and gallant little owlet, dreams of being a knight. He imagines himself defeating dragons and winning favor far and wide through his brave exploits. When a record number of knights go missing, Owl applies to Knight School and is surprisingly accepted. He is much smaller than the other knights-in-training, struggles to wield weapons, and has “a habit of nodding off during the day.” Nevertheless, he graduates and is assigned to the Knight Night Watch. While patrolling the castle walls one night, a hungry dragon shows up and Owl must use his wits to avoid meeting a terrible end. The result is both humorous and heartwarming, offering an affirmation of courage and clear thinking no matter one’s size…and demonstrating the power of a midnight snack. The story never directly addresses the question of the missing knights, but it is hinted that they became the dragon’s fodder, leaving readers to question Owl’s decision to befriend the beast. Humor is supplied by the characters’ facial expressions and accented by the fact that Owl is the only animal in his order of big, burly human knights. Denise’s accomplished digital illustrations—many of which are full bleeds—often use a warm sepia palette that evokes a feeling of antiquity, and some spreads feature a pleasing play of chiaroscuro that creates suspense and drama.
A charming blend of whimsy and medieval heroism highlighting the triumph of brains over brawn. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31062-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
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