Fans of Duck and Goose can happily take the pair with them as they move toward independent reading.
Picture- and board-book duo Duck and Goose get the early-reader treatment.
Duck has a gift for his pal Goose—and it’s not even Goose’s birthday! The friendliest fowl around, Duck puts this gift (a mystery to readers) in a white box, paints the box in colorful stripes, and ties a ribbon around it. To top it off, he even includes a handmade card. Goose arrives on the scene and starts honking questions about the present. As soon as Goose realizes the box is for him—and is a convenient receptacle for all his “special things”—he rushes off to gather his many treasures. When Goose returns, Duck tells his hasty friend the box is not the actual gift and invites him to open it, which Goose does to discover…another box! Using a vocabulary of around 60 unique words (usually 8 or fewer per page) Hills successfully shepherds the duo into their newest format. Rather than using italics, the design underlines a few words for emphasis. The spare mixed-media illustrations directly correlate to the text, featuring one or both birds in a patch of grass set against an ample solid white background. In addition to aiding decoding, the book’s predictable pattern contributes to its well-paced comedic moments. On one spread, for instance, Goose unexpectedly breaks the fourth wall in a moment of heightened emotion.
Fans of Duck and Goose can happily take the pair with them as they move toward independent reading. (Early reader. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-64489-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...
Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.
Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
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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