A brief introduction to good twin kitties and a rascally mouse.
Kit and Kaboodle are the stars of Wells’ newest series, kitty twins who never make any trouble—but a little mouse named Spinka creates all kinds of mischief for them.
Wearing a jaunty red cap, wee Spinka is the villain of this “not me!” story. In three short vignettes, the little mouse creates just a teaspoon of trouble in each. Mama and Daddy immediately blame the twins for each misadventure, while the kitties profess their innocence. Neither adults nor children ever notice the sneaky squeaker, who gleefully relishes her devious behavior. With signature Wells’ colors and animal sweetness, the illustrations will have young listeners searching out the impish mouse. The trouble is tiny indeed, as the extent of it is only a slightly stern parent blaming the children for using too much bubble bath or eating one of the chocolate blimpies. Discussions can focus on how Spinka feels left out when she doesn’t receive a gift or isn’t invited to play baseball. Will Spinka ever be caught? Or is Spinka just an imaginary pot-stirrer? Further ambiguity is introduced when Kit, who wears a dress and pink shoes while Kaboodle sports shorts, is referred to with the same masculine pronoun as their twin. Is it a typo or an exploration of gender ambiguity? Readers will need to wait till the next installment to find out.
A brief introduction to good twin kitties and a rascally mouse. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-13075-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Godwin Books
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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