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WHO'S A GOOSE?

Name: WHO'S A GOOSE?
Author: Scott Stuart
ISBN: 9781338875829

by Scott Stuart ; illustrated by Scott Stuart ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2023

An amusing way to learn some collective nouns and enjoy the underdog’s triumph.

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A pretentious professorial goose tries to school a younger goose on animal plurals.

English collective nouns for animal groups are notoriously irregular. When monocle-wearing, bow-tied Bruce pompously instructs, “Two goose is geese,” boisterous young Bill responds, “And two goose is geese!” (But as Bruce realizes, two moose are not meese.) Bill always looks elated, while Bruce appears harried. Seeing leaf-bearing ants in single file, Bill guesses logically they’re a herd—but no, they are a colony. As Bill sinks headfirst into a huge anthill, only the goose’s lower half showing, Bruce exclaims in exasperation, “I can’t take you seriously if you will not wear pants!” Sheep multiply over four pages, but one or many, they remain sheep. A group of bats is a cauldron; multiple giraffes are a tower. After readers learn about plural monkeys, fish, penguins, and pigs, teacher and pupil face a skulk of playful foxes and their stolen “socks-es.” Suddenly, one fox contemplates Bruce not as a source of knowledge but as dinner—but it’s Bill to the rescue! Stuart wrings humor from the absurdity of grammar rules and from the interactions between the two geese. The animals are depicted in cartoon style, with expressive eyes and jointless bodies, Bruce with a flat head and geometric neck. The pages have bright, flat-hued backgrounds, and the cavorting animals are given close to their natural coloration. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An amusing way to learn some collective nouns and enjoy the underdog’s triumph. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: July 18, 2023

ISBN: 9781338875829

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
MY SHADOW IS PINK
by Scott Stuart ; illustrated by Scott Stuart

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GOOD NIGHT, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 22, 2019

A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends.

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Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!

Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.

A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HMH Books

Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S VALENTINE
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

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YOUR BABY'S FIRST WORD WILL BE DADA

by Jimmy Fallon ; illustrated by Miguel Ordóñez ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2015

Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.

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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)