by Michaela Schuett ; illustrated by Michaela Schuett ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2017
A joyful expression of wishes made true.
A frog can make itself into a unicorn—with a can of Magical Unicorn Sprinkles.
Although stubborn Goat tells Frog that it cannot be a unicorn, Frog proves the skeptical animal wrong. Frog first tries to convince Goat by donning a party hat for a horn and a tail made of colored streamers and by carrying the special sprinkles. Frog boasts of living “on a fluffy cloud.” (The cloud is made of cotton balls.) Frog can fly. (The illustration shows Frog perched on a swing.) Frog’s “best friend is a fairy.” (In reality, that friend is a cow.) In a spread that some children will find especially funny, Frog declares, “I eat flowers and toot rainbows!” and farts a smelly arc of colors in Goat’s face. Angry Goat debunks the assertions, and sad Frog almost gives up the dream, taking off the horn and throwing away the can of Sprinkles. Goat unexpectedly apologizes: “Frog? I’m sorry. You made a really good unicorn costume.” Even as Goat is apologizing, the container of sprinkles “boings” off the backs of many sheep and finally lands on Frog, and “POOF!” Frog is now an honest-to-goodness purple unicorn! The brightly colored, cartoonlike illustrations with lots of funny farm animals work well with the zany content.
A joyful expression of wishes made true. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-1469-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
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by Amanda Driscoll ; illustrated by Amanda Driscoll ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying.
A story-reading dragon—what’s not to like?
Duncan the Dragon loves to read. But the stories so excite him, his imagination catches fire—and so do his books, leaving him wondering about the endings. Does the captain save the ship? Do aliens conquer the Earth? Desperate to reach the all-important words “The End” (“like the last sip of a chocolate milk shake”), he tries reading in the refrigerator, in front of a bank of electric fans, and even in a bathtub filled with ice. Nothing works. He decides to ask a friend to read to him, but the raccoon, possum, and bull all refuse. Weeping, Duncan is ready to give up, but one of his draconic tears runs “split-splat into a mouse,” a book-loving mouse! Together they battle sea monsters, dodge icebergs, and discover new lands, giving rise to a fast friendship. Driscoll’s friendly illustrations are pencil sketches painted in Adobe Photoshop; she varies full-bleed paintings with vignettes surrounded by white space, imaginary scenes rendered in monochrome to set them apart. Duncan himself is green, winged, and scaly, but his snout is unthreateningly bovine, and he wears red sneakers with his shoelaces untied—a nicely vulnerable touch. Though there are lots of unusual friendship stories in picture books, the vivid colors, expressive faces, and comic details make this one likely to be a storytime hit.
Like the last sip of a chocolate milkshake, it’s very satisfying. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-75507-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2023
Another absurd tale of the omnivorous old woman consuming the inedible.
A very silly fairy tale–inspired riff on the nursery rhyme.
The light-skinned old lady scarfs down a dragon for no discernable reason: “Can you imagine?” The dragon is followed by a tan-skinned princess “to guide the dragon,” a light-skinned knight “to soar with the princess,” a castle “for all to assemble,” a moat “to surround the castle,” a light-skinned mermaid “to float in the moat,” and finally “a book.” That volume proves to be a purgative: The old lady “began to exhale,” and “out came a magical fairy tale.” The one page of the fairy-tale book shown depicts the knight saving the princess from the dragon (the mermaid is just an onlooker) above the final phrase, “Happy reading!” No guiding, soaring, or assembling in sight. The mortal peril of ingesting heaps of the ridiculous has disappeared: There’s no more threat that “perhaps she’ll die.” Frequent repetition of imagine to rhyme with dragon might prove trying, but the zany action overcomes the tedium: Lee’s cartoon characters, bug-eyed and bulbous-nosed, slide down the old lady’s maw and float in her belly. Like many of the books in this astoundingly popular and drawn-out series, this one abandons the metrical structure and the logic of the original, and unlike some, it does not add educational tidbits. Still, past performance and the wacky illustrations promise library, classroom, and bedtime thrills. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Another absurd tale of the omnivorous old woman consuming the inedible. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1338879117
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared Lee
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by Lucille Colandro ; illustrated by Jared D. Lee
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