The clever ending is a yee-haw moment that will rope in readers as quick as tumbling tumbleweeds.
Grab your cowboy hat and boots and saddle up for one rootin’, tootin’ story featuring Alice from Dallas.
Dallas, Pa., that is. Every day Alice rides her pony (the wooden kind) to school and entertains her class with tales of the Wild West. She reckons she’s “the only cowgirl in all of Pennsylvania.” That is, until Lexis, a “real” cowgirl from Texas, comes to town and treads on Alice’s turf. There’s bound to be a showdown between the two girls—at noon, of course, on the playground. While Lexis acts out a stagecoach holdup and throws a lasso better, Alice challenges by dancing a sprightly Texas two-step. When Lexis tries to show her up by duplicating the twirling moves, she falls down and hurts her foot. The next day, Alice feels guilty and visits Lexis to say she’s sorry. Each girl acknowledges the other’s skill, and it turns out that two cowgirls are better than one. The comic watercolor-and-ink illustrations don’t miss a beat in capturing the amusing rivalry that turns into friendship. Pigtailed Alice sports plaid shirts and jeans; blonde Lexis is a sparklier sort—a rhinestone cowgirl, if you will—who dresses down with a Lone Star T-shirt.
The clever ending is a yee-haw moment that will rope in readers as quick as tumbling tumbleweeds. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0790-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A culturally intricate slice of a lupine courier’s life.
Little Lobo and his dog, Bernabé, journey through a Mexican mercado delivering diverse goods to a variety of booths.
With the aid of red words splattered throughout the spreads as labels, Raúl the Third gives an introduction to Spanish vocabulary as Little Lobo, an anthropomorphic wolf, leaves his house, fills his cart with objects from his warehouse, and delivers them to the market’s vendors. The journey also serves as a crash course in Mexican culture, as the images are packed with intertextual details such as food, traditional games, and characters, including Cantinflas, Frida Khalo, and Juan Gabriel. Readers acquainted with Raúl the Third’s characters from his Lowriders series with author Cathy Camper will appreciate cameos from familiar characters. As he makes his rounds, Little Lobo also collects different artifacts that people offer in exchange for his deliveries of shoe polish, clothespins, wood, tissue paper, paintbrushes, and a pair of golden laces. Although Raúl the Third departs from the ball-pen illustrations that he is known for, his depiction of creatures and critters peppering the borderland where his stories are set remains in his trademark style. The softer hues in the illustrations (chosen by colorist Bay) keep the busy compositions friendly, and the halftone patterns filling the illustrations create foregrounds and backgrounds reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein’s pointillism.
A culturally intricate slice of a lupine courier’s life. (glossary) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-55726-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
Playing with scale and prompting readers to think big ensures a quick and entertaining tour to awesome sights.
Minor focuses his attention on the symbolic gourd of fall, juxtaposing national landmarks or record-setting structures with visions of impossibly enormous pumpkins or jack-o’-lanterns.
The title poses a tantalizing question that leads gracefully from the real to the surreal. What follows in each full-bleed spread is a famous site—man-made or natural—painted with watercolor and gouache that majestically captures the impressiveness of the place. He includes in these illustrations an image of a wildly oversized pumpkin. It’s a quirky notion, and it kind of works. Few children would seek out a book on important places to see across the United States. A better bet is a title like this one, which imparts that information while also making them laugh at the sheer humor in the pictures. One image shows the highest roller coaster feeding into the open mouth of a fierce-looking jack-o’-lantern. Another pumpkin innocently stops traffic when it is placed in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. Yet another smiles up close as a rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral. From Connecticut to California, 14 places are featured. More information about them is provided at the end of the book.
Playing with scale and prompting readers to think big ensures a quick and entertaining tour to awesome sights. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-24684-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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