Gently whack-a-doodle, sure to leave little listeners aping the giant apes.
With great apes around, will the tidy town be fixed or flattened?
In a lovely little town determined to win the Tidiest Town Competition for the third year running, the mayor notices that one flower is taller than the others. Fussy Great Ape offers to help. He does, but his help flattens all the other flowers. The mayor is incensed. Fussy Great Ape knows someone who can fix it, and he hollers, “Bogo! Pogo! Apes a-go-go!” (which is how great apes contact one another). Along comes his friend Mucky Great Ape, who’s a gardener. He fixes the flowers but buries the street in mud. They call Sopping Great Ape, who washes the street but floods the town. After Thumping Great Ape and Sweeping Great Ape provide further “assistance,” the town’s flattened. They call Baking Great Ape, who makes a giant cake that everyone enjoys while the apes put the town back together. It’s not perfect, but the mayor has found warm cake and friends might be better than awards—but when Smashing Great Ape offers to help clean up after the cake, the mayor decides to do it himself. Avant-garde fashion designer Milisic’s debut is goofy and endearing. Allen’s muddy pastel illustrations look like a long-lost Saturday morning cartoon designed by James Thurber.
Gently whack-a-doodle, sure to leave little listeners aping the giant apes. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-53363-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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