A spirited way to explore both causality and not-so-clean fun.
Henry tries his hardest to stay clean for a special day at school.
Henry, a boisterous, young rhinoceros, is very, very messy. Within the first two minutes of every day he is instantly covered in jelly stains and mud splatters. He just can’t help it. But one day, Henry sets out to stay clean. For the entire day. He eats only white food, jumps over every puddle, and sits in the back of the room during art class, far away from any paint. Henry is achieving his goal, but his classmates aren’t so lucky. Every time Henry narrowly misses a mess, he causes others to get dirty. That mud puddle that he jumped? It splashes his friend, the raccoon, instead. The jelly doughnut he avoided? It squirts onto his pal, the panda. Henry’s careful watch over his clumsiness has assured that he remains spotless, but his friends—and even his teacher—end up covered in grime, all because of him. And why was Henry trying so hard to stay clean in the first place? Because it was class picture day! In the photo, Henry beams, unsullied, but the rest of the class is a sticky mess. Breen surrounds the impish rhino with smudges, spots, and brightly colored chaos, onomatopoeic expressions of clumsiness rendered in messy display type. The text reveals just enough to allow the pictures maximum humorous effect.
A spirited way to explore both causality and not-so-clean fun. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4156-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts.
Ohtani, pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, teams up with Blank and Liem to tell the story of how his dog, Decoy, threw out a ceremonial first pitch.
It’s a big day! Decoy leaps “off the bed. Then back onto the bed. Then off the bed.” The enthusiastic pup heads outside to practice with his lucky baseball but is quickly distracted by squirrels (“we’ll play later!”), airplanes (“flyin’ high!”), and flowers (“smell ya soon!”). Dog and pitcher then head to the ballpark. In the locker room, Decoy high-paws Shohei’s teammates. It’s nearly time! But as Shohei prepares to warm up, Decoy realizes that he’s forgotten something important: his lucky ball. Without it, there will be “no championships, no parades, and no hot dogs!” Back home he goes, returning just in time. With Shohei at the plate, Decoy runs from the mound to his owner, rolling the ball into Shohei’s mitt for a “Striiiiike!” Related from a dog’s point of view, Ohtani and Blank’s energetic text lends the tale a sense of urgency and suspense. Liem’s illustrations capture the excitement of the first day of baseball season and the joys of locker room camaraderie, as well as Shohei and Decoy’s mutual affection—even when the ball is drenched in slobber, Shohei’s love for his pet shines through, and clearly, Decoy is focused when it matters.
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780063460775
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
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