Snoring usually isn’t this much fun.
During the South American jungle’s hot afternoon, the jaguar decides to celebrate a welcome breeze with a nap and instructs a coati to wake him in 10 minutes.
Scared of the jaguar, the coati agrees but, wanting a short snooze himself, enlists a cockatiel to wake him in time to rouse the jaguar. The story builds as the cockatiel, wishing to take part in the midafternoon siesta, brings a sloth into the plan. Alas, the sloth, who can barely stay awake, cannot find anyone to wake her and must keep her eyes open minute by minute. “This was such torture for the poor sloth! / But she had given her word to the cockatiel, / who had promised the coati, / who had promised the jaguar, (who, no one was particularly thrilled to see angry).” Of course, sloth finally dozes off with a snore so loud that it wakes everyone just in time. The story’s repetition creates anticipation for the thunderous surprise ending, which sees the startled animals running away while sloth continues her sonorous slumber. The amusing undertone of the story is enhanced with collage-style artwork resembling large construction-paper cutouts in muted colors. Each animal is native to the region and is depicted with convincingly droopy eyelids. Translated from the original Spanish, this should become a new favorite for multiple readings; kids will enjoy reciting the final countdown of minutes and that explosive, page-filling snore.
Snoring usually isn’t this much fun. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-84-945415-3-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A rare miss for Long and Otis
As the title indicates, the little tractor Otis celebrates Christmas.
Christmas is always exciting, but this one is “even more special,” as a baby foal is due. That snowy Christmas Eve is made more thrilling yet when the farmer gives Otis his very first Christmas present: a new horn. Otis can barely contain himself. But in the middle of the night, he awakes to hear the sounds of consternation in the pregnant mare’s stall: “Something [is] very wrong.” Unfortunately, the snow is falling fast, and the stable hand sent to fetch Doc Baker promptly fishtails into a snowbank. It’s Otis to the rescue again. Off he goes, “putt puff puttedy chuff,” through the woods (where he is briefly lost) to Doc Baker’s, where he uses his new horn to sound the alarm. Doctor and tractor make it back just in time. While Otis is a charming character, and the Christmas theme has great appeal, this is a rather lackluster outing for the sturdy tractor. Long’s heroic art is at its best in scenes with people and animals, his Lawson-esque line investing characters with emotion and movement. The rendition of Otis’ journey is rather less effective; only the most credulous of children will accept the sight of Otis inching his way down a massive, snow-covered tree trunk. The text likewise underwhelms, with its overreliance on exclamation points and treacly delivery.
A rare miss for Long and Otis . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-16395-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
SEEN & HEARD
In sum, while this title has its heart in the right place, it misses a lot of beats in its efforts. (Picture book. 3-5)
A well-intentioned, heartfelt effort to celebrate adoption ends up delivering problematic messages about fatherhood, birth families, and even the birds and the bees.
Cartoonish cover art shows a woman, Rose, with her heart protruding from her chest on a stemlike appendage. It’s not a grotesque image so much as it seems a feeble attempt to literalize the oft-stated line in adoptive families that children are, as the title says, “born from the heart.” This approach ends up making Rose appear pregnant, sort of…while her husband’s body remains unchanged. Is the child not born from his heart, too? Why not? Later, the doctor who has prescribed a “magic recipe” to Rose can “see something gleaming” in the prospective adoptive mother’s heart, akin to a sonogram image. This attempt, among others, to equate the adoption process with having a biological child seems to undermine the celebration of adoption by trying to make it “just like” having a biological child, suggesting that there’s something shameful about adoption itself. Then when the mother holds her new baby for the first time, the art depicts her lying on her back on the ground, her knees up and spread apart, in a quasi-birthing position. Other, much stronger titles about this important theme abound.
In sum, while this title has its heart in the right place, it misses a lot of beats in its efforts. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1144-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013
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