A blandly nonthreatening alternative to Emily Gravett’s Wolves (2006) and like encounters with metafictional characters.
A crocodile doesn’t belong in “The Ugly Duckling”! But how to get it out?
A scribble over Hans Christian Andersen’s name on the title page is only the first sign that the classic tale’s been hijacked. A few page turns later, the cozy scenes of ducklings have been replaced by a smiling croc, who gleefully proceeds to chow down on favorite letters (“St p! Mr. Cr c dile!”) and even sentences. Maybe shaking the book or pulling out that ever-handy purple crayon to draw a tutu on him will make him leave? A little red-capped gray cygnet acts as narrator, guiding readers through the story. Along with providing interactive opportunities, Bromley and O’Byrne dial down the danger—“He might bite your finger or scratch your nose! Crocodiles like to do that”—and at last let their comical croc escape by chewing a hole (die cut into the last page and back cover) in the last page. But: “Where do you think he’ll turn up next?”
A blandly nonthreatening alternative to Emily Gravett’s Wolves (2006) and like encounters with metafictional characters. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6163-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
A lesser choice for beginning readers.
What do zoo animals eat?
Clear, colorful photographs accompany a very simple text to answer this question. This title, originally published as a picture-book paperback in 2000, has been simplified for its transition to the Step into Reading series. Using a very basic vocabulary, simple sentences and repetition, the text touches on food preparation and feeding for elephants, zebras, giraffes, a panda, pigs, tortoises, porcupines, tigers, alligators, a sea lion, polar bears, a macaw, a cockatoo and flamingos. Children feed snacks to goats and eat ice pops themselves. Many of the pictures are the same as in the earlier edition, but some have been reworked. A few new images emphasize the feeding connection: The hand holds a meatball for the tiger behind the bars; another hand feeds a banana to a porcupine. The animal portraits will give struggling readers pleasure, but the narrative, full of exclamation points and questions, will not. Where previously the tiger “struts into her yard and relaxes under a shady tree,” here “he naps in the sun.” This new version may offer practice in associating letter combinations with sounds, but it won’t convey any of the enjoyment that reading can offer. Animal feeding is much more exciting in the DK reader Feeding Time, by Lee Davis(2001), which describes animals in the wild and even includes a picture index.
A lesser choice for beginning readers. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: July 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-37190-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
A book new readers will want to take a peek at.
A day in the life of a squirrel for new readers.
Striking photographs of a gray squirrel are paired with short, declarative sentences in the first person that describe the actions each picture depicts. “I can run” is the first line, and it appears on verso opposite a recto photo of the squirrel, its body stretched into a taut horizontal form moving from left to right with the page turn. Ensuing spreads depict the squirrel hopping, sitting, jumping (quite spectacularly), and so on. Then, two spreads are devoted to the squirrel hiding after a hawk tries to catch it. The drama in this sequence rivals that captured by Nic Bishop in Joy Cowley’s Red-Eyed Tree Frog (1999). Never fear: the squirrel ends the book safe and sound, the final spread showing the barely visible squirrel face poking up and out of a hole in a burl. “I can peek” reads the accompanying text. Although the photography is crisp and clear, pages that depict the squirrel in a tree demonstrate perhaps too well how squirrel camouflage works—there is so little contrast between squirrel body and tree that it is a little hard to see.
A book new readers will want to take a peek at. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3831-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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