A warmly encouraging adventure for the bold-hearted and trepidatious alike.
A cat and a mouse overcome a truly daunting obstacle: the playground slide.
In need of “a little adventure,” bow-wearing Kat invites bespectacled Mouse to head to the playground. Both enjoy the springy horses and the swings, but Mouse looks on overwhelmed as exuberant Kat zips and zooms down the slide. Kat apologizes for not giving Mouse a turn, but Mouse delays: “Um. I think I will need a drink of water first.” And maybe even a nap. Eyes shut, Mouse imagines sliding as a series of disastrous semi-falls. Finally, wearing a helmet, Mouse approaches the ladder—but we can see the little rodent trembling. Finally, Mouse admits to being scared. Kat offers to help and, ingeniously, appears with a crate of bananas and a surfboard. After they’ve eaten the bananas, Mouse tries Kat’s clever mini-slide, but it’s futile. Ever-positive Kat praises Mouse at being “good at TRYING!” Mouse shows off some sure-footed climbing skills. Then, noticing Kat about to slip on a banana peel, Mouse hurtles down the slide without thinking—turns out Mouse is brave when a friend is in need! Yoon’s confidently outlined and brightly colored art complements her insightful but easy-to-read text, which demonstrates an astute sense of child psychology.
A warmly encouraging adventure for the bold-hearted and trepidatious alike. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781547620425
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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