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 miniodyssey, familiar but elemental, and played out amid plenty of smiles and pop-ups.
An aquatic take on the ever-popular “Are you my mother?” plotline, weak in the natural-history department but fully cozy.
After Mama Frog lays her eggs in some “seaweed” she finds in her pond and goes off to find a lily pad for a home, five big-eyed tadpoles hatch and go in search of her. As they don’t know what she looks like, they accost Mama Duck, Mama Fish, Mama Crab and others. All of these mothers, rather than eat the tadpoles as many would do in real life, indulgently send them along with different descriptions of their real mama. Working with a palette of harmonious greens and grays, Hung crafts serene-looking pondscapes that open with tabs and lifted flaps into spacious, layered tableaux. When Mama Frog’s ribbits lead at last to a joyful meeting, her offspring’s first question is not, considering the storyline, the natural one about why they don’t look anything like her. Instead, they ask her to teach them her froggy song. She promises that once they do change to frogs, “we will sing ‘ribbit, ribbit’ together, all day and night!”
A miniodyssey, familiar but elemental, and played out amid plenty of smiles and pop-ups. (Pop-up/picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0718-6
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
A chocoholic moose misreads “mouse” on a help-wanted sign and ends up working at Mrs. Mouse’s bakery. A moose in a mouse-sized bakery is as welcome as a bull in a china shop, though. Moose continually makes messes and mistakes; incredibly, Mrs. Mouse is endlessly patient and is as clever as she is diplomatic, finally finding a solution by putting Moose to work as a babysitter. Despite the use of colorful onomatopoeia (“Slurp, gulp, burp!”) and overall silliness, the story is essentially bland and the illustrations confusing. The soft colors and lines give many things a charming, cuddly quality—in fact, Moose is portrayed as a stuffed toy—but the mice are all drawn realistically (in anthropomorphized, Beatrix Potter fashion). His sandwiches for the children are big enough for a moose yet he’s using equipment and supplies that are as tiny as mice. All his disasters are due to being oversized, but he somehow settles in a chair that is just right. The sweet message of friendship and sugary illustrations cannot overcome the book’s basic illogic. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-525-42202-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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