Brisk and bright, yet subtle in its message.
What can little creatures do to protect themselves from the forest bully?
The scary Snorklum, who has long tan fur and striped purple horns, is so worried about getting to his cave before dark that his crinkly whiskers begin to wibble. He sees Mole standing near a tree and picks him up with thoughts of having a Mole sandwich. Mole’s response to Snorklum’s scary roar is, “Why are your whiskers wibbling…?” Frustrated, Snorklum sticks Mole in his pocket, figuring he’ll eat him later. Down the road, he spies Rabbit and decides that a Rabbit pie would taste better than a Mole sandwich. He tries to scare Rabbit, but the same thing happens; Snorklum stuffs Rabbit into his shoulder bag and continues on his way. Next he encounters Badger (perfect for Badger stew), but he just can’t scare him either. Snorklum does stare the leaves off the trees and make the birds scatter, but the animals just stare at him; they know a secret: “If a scary Snorklum stays out after dark...” With a POOOFFT, the scary Snorklum, with a strangled cry, shrinks to the size of an insect. And no one, not even the birds, is afraid. Chapman’s Snorklum, cousin, perhaps, to Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion, is appropriately goofy, and her backgrounds go through many colors, from gold of late afternoon to dark-blue night.
Brisk and bright, yet subtle in its message. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-56148-728-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Good Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Far-fetched but satisfying.
This lighthearted tale of a child reared by sea lions is completely outlandish yet manages to capably address very real feelings about belonging and identity.
Leo, a young, white, blond boy, is pictured flying out of a boat during a storm even before the title page; he’s subsequently taken in by a family of sea lions. This looks like kid heaven—bodysurfing with sea lion pups, romping in a whale’s spout, and sleeping under the stars—but Leo feels and looks “different,” until he meets ”a creature who looked like him.” This creature, a young biracial, brown-skinned girl with hair in two ponytail puffs, really does look like him: They are both human. Once reunited with his human family, Leo is happy again, but as before, something is amiss. He still says “Ark! Ark!” and misses “his other family…and the sea.” Not explicitly about transracial adoption or blended families, this is about a child longing to belong, and the simultaneous feelings of happiness and alienation here ring true. Vogel’s stylized digital illustrations have an appealingly cartoonish look, with googly eyes on both humans and animals. Humorous scenarios (Leo sitting in a restaurant seafood tank; a sea lion in the bathtub with a gull on its head) visually portray the contrasts Leo feels. The happy ending, when Leo’s human family moves to the seaside so people and sea creatures can live together, is perhaps unrealistically optimistic, but this is a story of a child raised by sea lions, after all.
Far-fetched but satisfying. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5039-0260-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A welcome addition to autumnal storytelling—and to tales of traditional enemies overcoming their history.
Ferry and the Fans portray a popular seasonal character’s unlikely friendship.
Initially, the protagonist is shown in his solitary world: “Scarecrow stands alone and scares / the fox and deer, / the mice and crows. / It’s all he does. It’s all he knows.” His presence is effective; the animals stay outside the fenced-in fields, but the omniscient narrator laments the character’s lack of friends or places to go. Everything changes when a baby crow falls nearby. Breaking his pole so he can bend, the scarecrow picks it up, placing the creature in the bib of his overalls while singing a lullaby. Both abandon natural tendencies until the crow learns to fly—and thus departs. The aabb rhyme scheme flows reasonably well, propelling the narrative through fall, winter, and spring, when the mature crow returns with a mate to build a nest in the overalls bib that once was his home. The Fan brothers capture the emotional tenor of the seasons and the main character in their panoramic pencil, ballpoint, and digital compositions. Particularly poignant is the close-up of the scarecrow’s burlap face, his stitched mouth and leaf-rimmed head conveying such sadness after his companion goes. Some adults may wonder why the scarecrow seems to have only partial agency, but children will be tuned into the problem, gratified by the resolution.
A welcome addition to autumnal storytelling—and to tales of traditional enemies overcoming their history. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-247576-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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