Little Mabel is an only (and lonely) child, with just her large, rambunctious and very hairy dog, Jack, for companionship due to a lack of children in their urban neighborhood. Mabel and Jack play some games outside and make visits to three nearby apartments, where the adult neighbors chat briefly with their young friend before returning to their adult tasks. When Mabel finds a large, empty carton and a bent bicycle wheel, she and Jack (and the story) take off in quite another direction as girl and dog blast off into outer space in their invented spaceship. The lead-up to this payoff, while lengthy, underscores both Mabel’s loneliness and the warmth of the adults in her life, but children may not have the patience to wait for it. Avril’s lively illustrations, especially of the imaginary outer-space scenes, add pizzazz to Mabel’s story, and the page-turn into blast-off mode shows the power of a child’s imagination to turn a few mundane supplies into a creative adventure. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3198-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
Younger audiences will be screaming “There it is!” from the get-go.
A small child plays hide-and-seek with a surprisingly elusive (except to viewers) elephant.
“OK. You hide,” says the child. Says the elephant: “I must warn you though. I’m VERY good.” The dark-skinned, springy-haired, and increasingly confused-looking child fruitlessly searches house and yard for the pachyderm—who positively dominates each scene whether “hiding” beneath curtains, under a coverlet on top of the bed, or behind a skinny tree. Applying thin color to rough-surfaced paper with splashy, Chris Raschka–style freedom, Barrow supplies the questing child with parents (a biracial couple, to judge from family portraits on the wall), legibly hand-lettered dialogue, and a small dog who has no trouble at all seeing the elephant. A tap on the shoulder brings the game to an end at last, whereupon a tortoise’s invitation to a round of tag presents an easier challenge. Or does it? “I must warn you though….” Beyond the sheer absurdity, children will delight in details, such as the wide-screen TV the elephant holds in one scene, the child’s dad so focused on the soccer game on the screen that he asks, “What elephant?” and the sly alterations to the family portraits on the rear endpapers.
Younger audiences will be screaming “There it is!” from the get-go. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-776570-08-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
Charming Easter fun.
You may know the Easter Bunny, but get ready to meet Peter Easter Frog!
Peter loves Easter, and he’s not going to let the fact that he’s a frog and not a bunny stop him, especially when he’s so good at hopping! He looks absolutely delighted to be hopping around delivering Easter eggs. As he hops along, so does a repeated refrain, which always begins with two words ending with “-ity” coupled with “Easter’s on its—” (“Squishity, squashity, Easter’s on its—”; “Yippity, yappity, Easter’s on its—”); each page turn playfully upends the expected conclusion of the line. Karas’ cheery art portrays a growing array of animals: a turtle decked out in lipstick and a spiffy Easter bonnet, a cow with flower choker necklace, and a sheepdog and a chipmunk sans finery. As Peter gives out colorful, patterned Easter eggs to the other animals, they are, at first, shocked to see an Easter frog but soon join him in his charitable mission to spread Easter cheer. The moment when the cow responds to the dog’s challenge that she is not a cow-bunny by pointing out its own breed as a “sheepdog” may elicit laughs, especially from adult readers. When the group finally meets the real Easter Bunny—hilariously, at the end of a dark tunnel—it seems that things may go awry, but all ends hoppily, happily, and inclusively. The text does not use dialogue tags, instead setting narration and dialogue in separate, distinctive typefaces; unfortunately, this design is not consistently applied, which may confuse readers. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 26.8% of actual size.)
Charming Easter fun. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6489-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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