A charming picture book for the very young, whether or not they are fussy about clothes.
A little owl struggles with accessory problems.
Little Owl lives with his Mommy in a tree house on the edge of the city park. He loves all the things little owls usually love: doing arithmetic, eating ice cream and riding a scooter. There is one flaw in this idyllic scenario: He does not love his new scarf. It is too long, too orange and too itchy. His mother insists that he wear it. He does his best to surreptitiously “lose” the scarf, by using it as a ribbon for a present for Grandpa and by putting it in a suitcase bound for Peru, but Mommy always seems to find it. Until one day…Little Owl returns from a trip to the zoo, minus the hated scarf. This piece of bad luck turns out to be an opportunity for a bit of mother-child bonding. This time, Mommy lets her son choose the yarn for a new scarf, a tasteful blue, and Little Owl is much happier. The new scarf is soft, the right length and not orange. The mystery of where the orange scarf went is revealed in the last picture, sure to elicit chuckles. Feeney’s naïve pencil-and-duotone illustrations, which use printmaking techniques to add interesting textures, complement the simple narrative and gentle message; both pacing and subtle adjustments to Little Owl’s expression add humor.
A charming picture book for the very young, whether or not they are fussy about clothes. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-449-81411-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another improbable but amusing story of animal friendship.
A large polar bear who lives in a very ordinary human-looking house finds that a mouse has moved in and won’t leave.
In rhyming text, this sequel to There’s a Bear on My Chair (2016) features the same two animals at odds again. The small mouse wears a patterned ski sweater and has moved in, lock, stock, and barrel, hanging pictures on the walls (one of a big hunk of Swiss cheese and the other of himself), playing soft rock on a boom box, and eating everything in sight (except for “one pistachio”). He causes all sorts of trouble. “He’s made my bathtub overflow! / It flooded the room down below, / so now I’m soaked from head to toe. / That’s it! / I’m done! / He has to go!” The last three lines are printed in larger and larger type to indicate the bear’s frustration at the drops raining down from above. But when the mouse’s rodent friends, all dressed in wildly patterned sweaters and party hats of their own, come by bringing treats and fun, the bear eventually gets into the groove and decides “Hey…these mice are nice!” There’s a bit of Seussian fun in the illustrations as more and more mice show up in the colorful cartoons, and once again, Collins makes the most of the difference between the little mouse and the burly bear. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Another improbable but amusing story of animal friendship. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2022-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Endearing.
The floppy-eared charmer who won the hearts of (among others) a Caldecott Award committee in her first outing suffers more doggy distress in this return.
Having chased first her blue ball and then an amusingly unconcerned-looking squirrel, Daisy finds herself alone in the trackless woods. Applying paint with broad brushwork both wet and dry, Raschka expertly captures sweeping emotional arcs as Daisy and her equally anxious owner search for each other through dense foliage. Finally, Daisy’s despairing howl leads to a reunion so joyful that it requires three nearly identical scenes to express properly. With only Daisy’s called-out name and that howl for text, the pictures chart the eventful outing in a mix of full spreads and sequential strips or panels—with a midcourse aerial view that reassuringly reveals that the two are never very far apart. The duckling Daisy in Jane Simmons’ Come Along, Daisy! (1998) may be more venturesome, but young children will readily identify with the mix of high spirits and vulnerability this Daisy, literally and figuratively fetching, displays.
Endearing. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-449-81741-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
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