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ONE-DOG SLEIGH

Here’s hoping for more transportation-themed adventures from this daring (and endearing) duo.

Children intrigued by the idea of a ride in a “one-horse open sleigh” will enjoy this humorous story of a girl and her dog experiencing an old-fashioned mode of winter transportation.

Casanova and Hoyt team up again for this sequel to their One-Dog Canoe (2003), with the same little girl narrator and her perky dog again trying to enjoy an outdoor adventure together. Following the same cumulative structure as the first story, a cast of animal characters appears sequentially in the snowy forest, and one by one they crowd into the overloaded sleigh. They encounter a blizzard, the crowded sleigh hits a bump, and “SWOOSH-A-BANG THUMP!”: All the critters fly through the air into a snow bank, but they recover and play under the twinkling stars before waving “goodbye / on a crisp winter night.” This one has it all: rhyme, rhythm, repetition, humor and a satisfying ending, as girl and dog head back to the warm, brightly lit barn. Charming watercolor-and-ink illustrations provide a variety of perspectives and captivating personalities for the forest-animal friends.

Here’s hoping for more transportation-themed adventures from this daring (and endearing) duo. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-374-35639-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

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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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