By turns funny, poignant, and affirming.
Sometimes, (day)dreams do come true.
In the latest in the series, the hedgehog who lives in the park where light-skinned Percy works is asleep, dreaming about the joy of flying. But he’s rudely interrupted by a shower of buckeye chestnuts, and he rolls himself into a protective ball. In a laugh-out-loud scene, the hedgehog uncurls to see a strange bird named Carla “tangled up in what looked like a clothesline and…going up and down like a yo-yo.” At Carla's request, the hedgehog doesn’t tell Percy what’s going on and does his best to help. First, the hedgehog trots off in search of food for Carla and returns, after a bit of a tumble, with his spines stuck in one of Percy’s sandwiches, a giggleworthy image. The chatty Carla explains how she ended up like this: Spotting some food near the clothesline, she swooped, but the clothes “went flappy-flap,” she hit her head, and then she got tangled. Carla hurt her head, so the hedgehog races off to Percy’s to get Band-Aids and creates quite a mess in the process. Luckily, Percy arrives to untangle Carla. During the few days Carla spends recovering, everyone works out a plan to help the hedgehog’s dream of flying come true. The smile on the hedgehog’s face is priceless, as are the warm, cozy illustrations in this tender tale of friendship and community. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
By turns funny, poignant, and affirming. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-00-848435-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
Gorgeous cut-paper collage illustrations cannot outweigh the absence of a story.
First in the Math in Nature series, this prompts readers to imagine animals and plants using numbers to count and arrange themselves.
“Would pronghorns pair up, / line up in a parade, / and prance across the prairie? // With toes like those, / do you suppose / raccoons can count on trouble?” The text attempts some rhythm and rhyme, but it is inconsistent and awkwardly forces the story to conform to the words. Each verse is followed by a separate text box that allows readers to practice a mathematical concept: Counting, ordinal numbers, groups of 10, skip counting, counting down from 10, and halves are among those addressed. Backmatter includes a brief paragraph of information about the featured flora and fauna, but it lacks an answer key. Barron’s artwork is lovely, each spread filled with natural colors, textures and 3-D scenery, but not all are particularly fall-ish. It can also be difficult to distinguish the items to be counted from the backgrounds and to put them into the correct groupings (don’t count across the gutter on the bat page, even though there’s no break in the line of bats!). Finally, Flatt’s conclusion—that nature does not "know" numbers—is just not scientifically accurate. Animals and plants may not count and arrange themselves by number, but that does not mean there is no math in nature.
Gorgeous cut-paper collage illustrations cannot outweigh the absence of a story. (Math picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-926973-36-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
Like the eponymous dish, this will whet limited appetites.
A Francophone snail struggles to find itself in a story.
Escargot, a cartoon snail in a blue-and-white–striped shirt, a red kerchief, and a black beret, immediately breaks the fourth wall, opening with: “Bonjour! I see you are reading a book. I will try not to distract you.” (The “you” here at the end is revealed to be a smiling black child holding a paintbrush. It’s all very meta.) Of course, what follows is a meandering distraction. Escargot first talks about different books “you” might like, then laments the lack of vibrant, positive snail representation in these stories. Escargot then brags about itself, imagining that “you” are addressing it: “The main character of a story must have a problem, Escargot! You are so handsome, suave, and smart. What problem could you possibly have?” (The proliferation of “you”s here, referring to very distinctly different “you”s, will pose a challenge to young readers not totally conversant with the conventions of dialogue.) The problem turns out to be that Escargot is tired of salads. The ensuing adventure involves finding a French cookbook, learning that snails could be on the menu, and deciding that the only way to save the day is to eat the cookbook. It’s barely even a story, and the annoyingly grandiose narrator is likely to lead non-Francophones to attempt a mocking French accent during read-alouds, an exhausting gag that tires itself out.
Like the eponymous dish, this will whet limited appetites. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-31286-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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