Storytime audiences will quack up.
Unsure of his destination, can Bernie keep his “On-Time Delivery Money Quack Guarantee”?
Delivery-dog Bernie’s truck is full of goofy, distracted ducks: one’s reading the newspaper, two are drinking a “Bladder Buster” soda—and another ate the directions to his customer’s house. So the put-upon pooch must stop everyone he sees to ask, “Did you call for a truck full of ducks?” A little girl didn’t; she called for a mail truck to send her little brother far away. The jackhammering construction worker didn’t; he called for a “D-D-D-DUMP truck.” The pirate (a mass of disability stereotypes: eyepatch, hook, peg leg, and rotten teeth) didn’t call for ducks…he called for a truck of crackers (for his parrot, of course), “not quackers.” It wasn’t the shark (ice cream truck) or the broken-down extraterrestrial (tow truck). By now, the ducks need a bathroom break—and, finally, from the deep, dark woods someone answers Bernie’s refrain. It was H. Fox, who makes the ducks more than a bit nervous. The surprise reason? Just as foolish as the entire journey. Burach’s tale, told completely in dialogue between Bernie and his possible customers, is only a part of the fun. Silly details decorate every spread of the bright, digitally created, cartoon illustrations, including newspaper headlines (“Stuff Happened”), posters, and the googly-eyed, rambunctious yellow ducks. There is some diversity of skin tone among the humans, but the preponderance are light-skinned.
Storytime audiences will quack up. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-12936-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
