The fairy tales asides, there’s plenty of cozy warmth in Fern and Otto’s friendship itself.
A cat and a bear working on a picture book find familiar stories in the forest.
Fern, a bear, and Otto, a cat, have a busy and full life together in a cozy seaside treehouse they share as best friends. When Fern tries to write and illustrate a book about their friendship, Otto suggests they go out into the forest for more exciting material, such as unicorns, dragons, or wish-granting genies. Instead, the pair come across stories in progress that’ll be familiar to most young readers, such as “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Three Bears,” and, most frightening, the witch from “Hansel and Gretel.” It’s all a “little too exciting for me,” Otto finally admits, “I really would love a story about two friends who live in a cozy house on a hill, far away from wolves and witches.” Graegin’s follow-up to her first authored picture book, Little Fox in the Forest (2017), trades that wordless experience for a more convoluted story that seems a little beside the point, as Fern and Otto neither affect the fairy tales nor are much affected by them until the final fright. But the soft illustrations of the forest adventure, with dozens of beautifully rendered critters and kids (many of color) and a rapturous depiction of the duo’s treehouse in the moonlight, make up for any narrative missteps. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-22.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
The fairy tales asides, there’s plenty of cozy warmth in Fern and Otto’s friendship itself. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12130-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Yes, the Pigeon has to go to school, and so do readers, and this book will surely ease the way.
All the typical worries and excuses kids have about school are filtered through Willems’ hysterical, bus-loving Pigeon.
Told mostly in speech balloons, the bird’s monologue will have kids (and their caregivers) in stitches at Pigeon’s excuses. From already knowing everything (except whatever question readers choose to provide in response to “Go ahead—ask me a question. / Any question!”) to fearing learning too much (“My head might pop off”), Pigeon’s imagination has run wild. Readers familiar with Pigeon will recognize the muted, matte backgrounds that show off the bird’s shenanigans so well. As in previous outings, Willems varies the size of the pigeon on the page to help communicate emotion, the bird teeny small on the double-page spread that illustrates the confession that “I’m… / scared.” And Pigeon’s eight-box rant about all the perils of school (“The unknown stresses me out, dude”) is marvelously followed by the realization (complete with lightbulb thought bubble) that school is the place for students to practice, with experts, all those skills they don’t yet have. But it is the ending that is so Willems, so Pigeon, and so perfect. Pigeon’s last question is “Well, HOW am I supposed to get there, anyway!?!” Readers will readily guess both the answer and Pigeon’s reaction.
Yes, the Pigeon has to go to school, and so do readers, and this book will surely ease the way. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-04645-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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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