Any child who has been lost will relate to this story; the language and illustrations will make it a joy to read.
During a big storm, Little Elephant panics when he gets lost in the rainforest. Can he find his way back to safety?
The wind blows “swish sway swish sway,” and the rain falls “pitter patter pitter patter.” Scared, Little Elephant stays close to his mother. But when “an old tree CRACKS and CRASHES to the ground,” poor Little Elephant is separated from her. But the pachyderm has little time to despair. A tiger is coming, and he must run for his life! Little Elephant runs faster and faster as the tiger gains on him. Just in time, he is reunited with his mother. Huddled within his herd, Little Elephant is safe, and the tiger flees. Little Elephant’s rainforest adventure is nothing new. The beauty of the story, however, lies in the rhythmic onomatopoeia and fanciful illustrations. The howling wind’s “whistles and wails” and the “slip-slop” of slippery mud are heightened by playfully manipulated swirling, swishing letters in varying fonts and sizes. MacCarthy’s dynamic art also enhances the story. Double-page spreads boast wide expanses of rainforest in rich, warm shades of greens, golds, and browns. Tropical plants and rainforest creatures come to life in vivid detail, while emotion and mood are intensified with every carefully chosen hue, line, and brushstroke. In addition, readers will enjoy spotting creatures unique to the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia scattered throughout the book (a key at the back helps with identification).
Any child who has been lost will relate to this story; the language and illustrations will make it a joy to read. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-91095-911-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Otter-Barry
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hee haw.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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