What do you call a chicken who saves her aunty chickens from the soup factory? That’s right, one “souper” chicken. At first it appears that young Henrietta’s reading habit gets her into trouble in the Auchs’s (The Princess and the Pizza, 2002, etc.) latest poultry parody. Henrietta reads anything she can get her wings on and neglects her egg-laying duties. But since her aunties aren’t laying many eggs either, their farmer schedules a “vacation” for them. Being the youngest of the bunch, Henrietta is kept behind and regretfully bids goodbye to her aunties, who think she’s being punished for all that silly reading. As the truck pulls away, Henrietta reads the back of it—“Souper Soup Company”—and realizes that her aunties are going on a one-way trip. Using her trusty reading skills, she finds the address to the soup company and manages to save some pigs and cows from a similar fate along the way. In a hilarious climax, the chickens end up at a vegetarian farm and Henrietta’s aunties finally understand the importance of reading. Though the writing is a bit heavy-handed and borderline preachy, the energy and humor can’t be ignored. The brightly colored collage-style illustrations demand attention—especially Henrietta’s big tortoise shell reading glasses. Reading teachers and vegetarians alike will appreciate the message and young readers will find lots to laugh about. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 15, 2003
ISBN: 0-8234-1704-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Hee haw.
12
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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. 29, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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