The charismatic Titch may well spark a guinea-pig bubble; he’s that cute.
It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship….
Titch, a chubby guinea pig with a winsome mohawk, waits anxiously, Corduroy-like, in his glass box in the pet shop for a Big Person to adopt him. A boy named Bruno sits in his room wishing for his very own guinea pig. Titch’s efforts to attract an owner pay off when Bruno finds him and takes him home. Titch’s excitement at finally being adopted is tempered with anxiety about the strange habits of his new young owner, who uses the hapless guinea pig as a prop in his wacky experiments. The sedate little pet is not well-adapted to floating in the tub in a saucepan, being flown aloft in a makeshift balloon or hurtling down a track on a homemade train. He gets really worried when Bruno starts planning something big that Titch does not understand. All is well, however, when the final creation is revealed: a “great guinea-pig palace of fun,” complete with Jacuzzi, hammock, convenient celery garden, a snack train bearing Titch’s favorite fruit and “Poo Hut.” Titch realizes that in spite of their different personalities, the pet and his owner are becoming the best of friends. Dempsey’s insightful text and charming pen, pencil and watercolor illustrations are filled with intriguing details that will fuel conversations about what is involved in choosing a pet—as well as plenty of laughs.
The charismatic Titch may well spark a guinea-pig bubble; he’s that cute. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7316-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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
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A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity.
Buzz and his buzzy buddy open a spinoff series of nonfiction early readers with an aquarium visit.
Buzz: “Like other fish, sharks breathe through gills.” Fly Guy: “GILLZZ.” Thus do the two pop-eyed cartoon tour guides squire readers past a plethora of cramped but carefully labeled color photos depicting dozens of kinds of sharks in watery settings, along with close-ups of skin, teeth and other anatomical features. In the bite-sized blocks of narrative text, challenging vocabulary words like “carnivores” and “luminescence” come with pronunciation guides and lucid in-context definitions. Despite all the flashes of dentifrice and references to prey and smelling blood in the water, there is no actual gore or chowing down on display. Sharks are “so cool!” proclaims Buzz at last, striding out of the gift shop. “I can’t wait for our next field trip!” (That will be Fly Guy Presents: Space, scheduled for September 2013.)
A first-rate sharkfest, unusually nutritious for all its brevity. (Informational easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-50771-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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BOOK REVIEW
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