A perfect companion for a young pet lover or pet owner–to-be.
Every story has two sides, but some tales move at a turtle’s pace and require patience and a bit of good fortune.
For Nia’s sixth birthday, she receives a turtle. The little black girl names her new friend Alfie. Nia adores her new friend and eagerly introduces him to all her friends, declaring that Alfie is 6 like her. As much as she loves him, though, Nia soon runs out of things to do with her laid-back turtle friend, so she “kind of forg[ets]” about him. Before long, it’s time to celebrate Nia’s seventh birthday, and that’s when Alfie gets an idea. The second half of the book follows Alfie as he tries to find the perfect gift to repay the love he feels for the little girl who has shared so much of her world. Heder provides a story that doesn’t rhyme, but it does sing with childlike invention and honesty. Who hasn’t wondered what their pet was thinking or where it went that time it disappeared? With beautiful, expressive watercolor illustrations, including an astonishing, spare spread that marks the transition between Nia and Alfie as narrators, and clear, concise wording, Heder takes readers on a journey about what it means to be a child with a new pet who sometimes loses its luster but never its worthiness of love.
A perfect companion for a young pet lover or pet owner–to-be. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2529-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
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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