by Patricia MacCarthy ; illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2013
A bracing and beautiful antidote to cute-animals-in-the-forest stories.
“Freedom… / and survival!” exult the last words of text in this exquisitely rendered full-spread, full-bleed series of watercolor-and–colored-pencil images.
The moon illuminates all, as the forest animals go about their nocturnal lives, real animals doing what animals do: Both stags and beetles lock horns; a magnificent snowy owl swoops to seize a rat; a hedgehog snacks on one of those beetles. The text is printed on ribbons of white that are overlaid on the pictures, like scraps of torn paper; they are occasionally hard to read as the text curves and scatters. Although there is no blood and gore, the circle of life (and death) is clear: These animals depend on one another for food, for survival. If the fox, from whom the hare has escaped, does not find a meal for its kits, they will die. In the end, the fox brings down a goose and brings it home to the kits in a flurry of downed feathers. While the animals are delicately depicted, there is not a trace of anthropomorphism or sentimentality. The silvery moonlight allows MacCarthy to show the texture of leaf and fur, feather and fish scale, with honesty and beauty.
A bracing and beautiful antidote to cute-animals-in-the-forest stories. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-84780-283-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
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by Craig Smith ; illustrated by Katz Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2010
Hee haw.
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The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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by Sandra Markle & illustrated by Howard McWilliam ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2013
Irresistible.
What if an animal’s teeth grew into the space where you lost your two front teeth?
Markle chews on this interesting question in this compelling combination of imagination and fact. Spread by double-page spread, she introduces animals with unusual choppers, from the beaver’s iron-coated orange incisors to the camel’s worn-out stubs, and explains what they’re used for. Or, in the case of the narwhal’s single tusk, points out that scientists don’t yet know. On the left-hand side of each spread, photographs of the animals emphasize their teeth. On the right, a human child is portrayed with that animal’s teeth. These film-animation–style illustrations reinforce the fantasy aspect and feature a diverse range of children. A black-haired boy in flip-flops lifts a car with his elephant tusks. A girl in a wheelchair picks up soup noodles with her flexible, naked-mole-rat front teeth. The text is presented in small chunks—a paragraph of description and a toothy fact on one page facing a paragraph about what you could do with such teeth. The reading will be a challenge for the intended audience, but the subject so compelling they won't be able to resist. A backpack-wearing boy with dark-framed glasses and dripping fangs greets a rattlesnake on the cover.
Irresistible. (Informational picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-48438-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Vanessa Morales
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