LEXIE THE WORD WRANGLER

Name: LEXIE THE WORD WRANGLER
Author: Rebecca Van Slyke
ISBN: 978-0-399-16957-1

by Rebecca Van Slyke ; illustrated by Jessie Hartland ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2017

Here’s hoping Van Slyke and Hartland will round up some more nifty yarns, as this is clever wordplay to share with kids.

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Everyone knows Lexie is the best wrangler west of the Mississippi—best word wrangler, that is.

Outfitted in a tall hat and fancy boots, the freckle-faced white girl can ride, twirl a lariat, and herd cantankerous cattle. Besides that, she can tie words together, like “corn” and “bread” to make “cornbread.” In the spring she watches the baby letters grow into words that she can herd into sentences and then make into messages. Everyone agrees that Lexie is a champion word wrangler, except for one rascal who starts messing with her words. “Dogies” become “doggies,” a “bandana” becomes a “banana,” and a twinkling “star” is turned into several “rats.” “Ain’t no fun sleeping out under the rats,” says Lexie in a colossal understatement. Yep, it’s a word rustler at work. Lexie sets off to find the culprit and bring him to justice. In a sundown ambush, she lassoes the scoundrel: it’s a black kid named Russell. All he wants is to work with words like Lexie. So Russell the word rustler—make that wrestler—joins Lexie the word wrangler, and a rootin’ tootin’ team is hitched up. Hartland’s quirky gouache illustrations, reminiscent of Maira Kalman’s work, play up the Western-style humor. The last page has a dictionary of wrangler words.

Here’s hoping Van Slyke and Hartland will round up some more nifty yarns, as this is clever wordplay to share with kids. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: March 28, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-399-16957-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books

Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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THE POWER OF YETI
by Rebecca Van Slyke ; illustrated by G. Brian Karas

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LANA LYNN AND THE NEW WATCHDOG
by Rebecca Van Slyke ; illustrated by Anca Sandu

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GOOD NIGHT, ALLIGATOR
by Rebecca Van Slyke ; illustrated by Mike Boldt

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COCK-A-DOODLE-OOPS!

by Lori Degman ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2014

Puns and foolery pitched just right for newly independent readers.

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Zemke provides more farmyard huggermugger (George Shannon’s Wise Acres, 2004) to illustrate Degman’s versified tale of animals trying to substitute at sunrise for an absent rooster.

Deciding that he needs a week at the beach to catch up on his sleep, Rooster enlists fellow livestock to crow each morning to wake Farmer McPeeper while he’s gone. But despite the best efforts of Sheep (“Her cock-a-doodle baaaaaaaa / didn’t travel too faaa. / In fact, she made barely a peep”), Cow (“udder disaster!”) and the rest, McPeeper sleeps on. Looking properly popeyed and panicky in the cartoon scenes, the other animals welcome Rooster back at last—only to learn that he’s caught a cold and can barely wheeze. As in her prizewinning light verse for 1 Zany Zoo (illustrated by Colin Jack, 2010), the author displays a gift for rhymes and language that is clever rather than forced. She also skips the obvious (trite) solution of a general hullabaloo and just has Rooster leave a whispered “cock-a-doodle-doo” on McPeeper’s bedside phone—a technology assist that displays pleasing ingenuity. Farmer McPeeper wakes up, feeling like he’s slept for a week…which he has.

Puns and foolery pitched just right for newly independent readers. (Early reader. 5-7)

Pub Date: April 21, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-939547-07-1

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Creston

Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
TRAVEL GUIDE FOR MONSTERS PART DEUX
by Lori Degman & Jocelyn Watkinson ; illustrated by Marcus Cutler

- BOOK REVIEW
TRAVEL GUIDE FOR MONSTERS
by Lori Degman ; illustrated by Dave Szalay

- BOOK REVIEW
LIKE A GIRL
by Lori Degman ; illustrated by Mara Penny

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THE SEASONS OF LITTLE WOLF

by Jonathan London ; illustrated by Jon Van Zyle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2014

Respectful and informative, with dashes of humor and drama.

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The creators of The Eyes of Grey Wolf (1993) bring the same close intimacy to this sequel—a chronicle of a cub’s eventful first year.

Thanks to the illustrations’ low angle of view, readers practically become members of the pack. Little Wolf and his three littermates are born in spring, bumble out of the cozy den for playtime in the warm months of summer, and then in autumn, join parents Gray Wolf and White Wolf on a hazardous first hunt. London likewise invites children to think of the wolves as practically human: Little Wolf and his sibs “chow down” by nipping Gray Wolf’s muzzle after he returns from a hunt. (London leaves the exact mechanism of delivery ambiguous, which may cause readers to believe that Gray Wolf has just carried a mouthful of meat home to the cubs.) The cubs also play “tug-of-war” and “hide-and seek” until things get too wild and White Wolf imposes a “wolf’s time-out.” Still, for all the attentive parenting, close family ties and social nature on display here, the wolves are not anthropomorphized.

Respectful and informative, with dashes of humor and drama. (afterword) (Informational picture book. 6-8)