A nostalgic piece that, however beautiful, seems wasted on this age group. (Picture book. 5-8)
A nostalgic riddle: what horse is this?
"Every day I stand next to a mirror, but I have never seen myself in it." The eponymous horse describes charging up San Juan Hill, starring in spaghetti Westerns, winning the Derby and medaling in "every Olympics. Always." The horse has traveled thousands of miles but never ended up more than 30 feet away from where it started—because, of course, it's a carousel horse. Readers who have any familiarity with merry-go-rounds will have probably identified it before cracking the cover, on which prances a carousel horse in all its carven glory, lacking only a pole. This quibble aside, the riddle is clever, but it seems designed to appeal more to adults than children, who likely won't understand the references to Teddy Roosevelt or feel the same sense of a historic past. Likewise, the textured scratchboard-and–oil wash illustrations, in a muted palette and set against lots of white space, are lovely but seem deliberately old-fashioned, almost static, and not child-friendly at all. Every rider and every child depicted is white. The idea here isn't bad, but it's slight enough that it might have worked better as a magazine piece.
A nostalgic piece that, however beautiful, seems wasted on this age group. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56846-291-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)
The town of Sunnyview got a little bit safer when 8-year-old Eugene McGillicudy moved in.
Just like his comic-book mentor, Super Dude, Eugene, aka Captain Awesome, is on a one-man mission is to save the world from supervillains, like the nefarious “Queen Stinkypants from Planet Baby.” Just as Eugene suspected, plenty of new supervillains await him at Sunnyview Elementary. Are Meredith Mooney and the mind-reading Ms. Beasley secretly working together to try and force Eugene to reveal his secret identity? Will Principal Brick Foot succeed in throwing Captain Awesome into the “Dungeon of Detention?” Fortunately, Eugene isn’t forced to go it alone. Charlie Thomas Jones, fellow comic-book lover and Super Dude fan, stands ready and willing to help. When the class hamster goes missing, Captain Awesome must don his cape and, with the help of his new best friend, ride to the rescue. Kirby’s funny and engaging third-person narration and O’Connor’s hilarious illustrations make the book easily accessible and enormously appealing, particularly to readers who have recently graduated to chapter books. But it is the quirky, mischievous Eugene that really makes this book special. His energy and humor are contagious, and his dogged commitment to his superhero alter ego is enough to make anyone a believer.
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4090-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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