A thoughtful tale for engineers young and old.
A story about what isn’t yet there…until it’s imagined by an industrious mouse!
It begins with a house, or perhaps with a warm, welcoming flame, or perhaps with the intrepid journey of a mouse who travels over a hill, across a river, and into an asparagus patch to find a home. But there isn’t a home…yet. First the mouse builds a stove around the flame, “to mark the spot where the chilliness wasn’t.” After an escape from a fox, the mouse builds a floor, marking a space “where the fox wouldn’t go.” A storm leads to a roof, and soon mouse has her house. A door is built, and unexpected guests fill the house with warm vegetable soup and friendship. Gentle, straightforward text and onomatopoeia recount the mouse’s efforts to envision what could be before it is there, learning from experience and creating the bones of a home in the empty space of the asparagus patch. Geometric artwork uses lines in all kinds of forms to evoke the stability of home and the uncertainty of travel; the mouse and her friends are simply yet effectively portrayed, conveying a childlike yet classic quality to the illustrations. A primarily earth-toned palette is peppered with tiny, colorful details throughout. The concentric halos around a candle on a deep blue spread are particularly poignant. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
A thoughtful tale for engineers young and old. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-286619-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade.
An ant explores her world.
Addie Ant’s ready for adventure. Despite some trepidation about leaving the Tomato Bed, where she lives with her aunt, she plucks up her courage and ventures forth across the garden to the far side of the shed. On her journey, she meets her pal Lewis Ladybug, who greets her warmly, points the way, and offers sage advice. When Addie arrives at her destination, she’s welcomed by lovely Beatrix Butterfly and enjoys an “ant-tastic” helping of watermelon. Beatrix also provides Addie with take-home treats and a map for the “Cricket Express,” which will take her straight home. Arriving at the terminal, Addie’s delighted to meet another friend, Cleo Cricket, whose carriage service returns Addie home in “two hops.” After eating a warm tomato soup dinner, Addie falls asleep and dreams of future exploits. Adorable though not terribly original, this story brims with sensuous pleasures, both textual and visual. Kids who declare that they dislike fruits or veggies may find their mouths watering at the mentions and sights of luscious tomatoes, peas, beans, watermelons, berries, and other foodstuffs; insect-averse readers may likewise think differently after encountering these convivial, wide-eyed characters. And those flowers and herbs everywhere! The highlights are the colors that burst from the pages. Addie’s an endearing, empowering character who reassures children they’ll be able to take those first independent steps successfully.
Young readers will be “antsy” to join the hero on her satisfying escapade. (author’s note about ants) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781797228914
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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
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