Concept and execution could not be better. Readers of all ages are the winners the moment they open this book.
Bow-Wow is back (Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug, 2007), here in pursuit of mischievous ghost cats that reside next door.
The story begins with Bow-Wow sleeping soundly on his cozy teal dog bed, but a trio of bright white felines arrive on the scene. While one bites his tail, the others take his bed, leaving the poor dog to recover from the shock of what happened. Of course, he follows his attackers across the street to a gloomy estate. Here is where the real antics occur. First the pup trips on a loose floorboard that leads to a fall headfirst down a chute. When he lands, he discovers a seemingly haunted picture with moving eyes. Escaping other tail-biting cats, he searches through room after room for his bed. Each time he sees a bit of teal he is disappointed. A dress, a burglar’s bag and a toilet seat cover are found—and unexpected silly surprises result. Throughout the quest, readers will glimpse dozens of white cats shape-shifting to better hide from or attack the dog. In this completely wordless picture book, Newgarden and Cash cue readers with various techniques taken from comics. In some scenes, a series of smaller frames builds to a dramatic turn of events, and page turns are never predictable.
Concept and execution could not be better. Readers of all ages are the winners the moment they open this book. (Picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-640-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.
When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.
As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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