COCK-A-DOODLE WHO?

For die-cut surprises read Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s Lemons Are Not Red (2004) or Hervé Tullet’s The Book with a Hole (2011)...

Die-cuts and a rhyming question-and-answer format showcase animals and patterns.

Two different but similar patterns are used in this puzzle that depends on reveals. A die-cut animal shape is shown against an inappropriate pattern, and a question is posed. “Mooing cow, for whom do you wait?” (The cow has a black-and-white–flowered hide.) After the page turn, the animal has its proper pattern and the new image answers the original question. “This maid stepping with a very quick gait.” (The milkmaid wears a flowered dress; the Holstein now has the usual black-and-white coloring.) The cow, duck, snail, sheep, ladybugs, trout, fox and rooster are presented as a farm animal collection, but they make an unusual one. The couplets, translated from the original French, have end rhyme, but limping rhythm makes them difficult to read aloud. Two of Perrin's previous books have been published here as board books (Look Who’s There! and What Do You See?, 2011) but this title has been formatted for slightly older readers. Its bold colors and interesting patterns have appeal, but both the experiences (plucking mushrooms?) and the stilted language may be beyond even the kindergarten child.

For die-cut surprises read Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s Lemons Are Not Red (2004) or Hervé Tullet’s The Book with a Hole (2011) instead. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: May 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-8075-1107-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Whitman

Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012

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THE WONKY DONKEY

Hee haw.

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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

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FLY GUY PRESENTS: SHARKS

From the Fly Guy series

A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.

Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.

Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)

A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)

Pub Date: May 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013

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