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
Puns and foolery pitched just right for newly independent readers.
Zemke provides more farmyard huggermugger (George Shannon’s Wise Acres, 2004) to illustrate Degman’s versified tale of animals trying to substitute at sunrise for an absent rooster.
Deciding that he needs a week at the beach to catch up on his sleep, Rooster enlists fellow livestock to crow each morning to wake Farmer McPeeper while he’s gone. But despite the best efforts of Sheep (“Her cock-a-doodle baaaaaaaa / didn’t travel too faaa. / In fact, she made barely a peep”), Cow (“udder disaster!”) and the rest, McPeeper sleeps on. Looking properly popeyed and panicky in the cartoon scenes, the other animals welcome Rooster back at last—only to learn that he’s caught a cold and can barely wheeze. As in her prizewinning light verse for 1 Zany Zoo (illustrated by Colin Jack, 2010), the author displays a gift for rhymes and language that is clever rather than forced. She also skips the obvious (trite) solution of a general hullabaloo and just has Rooster leave a whispered “cock-a-doodle-doo” on McPeeper’s bedside phone—a technology assist that displays pleasing ingenuity. Farmer McPeeper wakes up, feeling like he’s slept for a week…which he has.
Puns and foolery pitched just right for newly independent readers. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: April 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-939547-07-1
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
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Aims high but misses.
Staid pictures make a poor match for a child’s free-flying introduction to an imaginary friend.
In contrast to the art, which displays the drab palette and static compositions common to earnestly therapeutic titles, young Henry’s imaginative portrait of his friend “Vladimir” abounds in colorful details. Vladimir lives in Iceland—or sometimes next door—celebrates his birthday every day, likes the same foods as Henry, and owns an airplane and a forklift. He also has various pets including a dog named Hoss, who is big enough to scare wolves and “stays with me at night when it is very dark....” In her photo-collaged, mixed-media illustrations, Inglese gives Henry and his watching mother faint but realistic features, whereas Vladimir is drawn as a cartoon figure, changeable of size and apparent age. In the final scene, he snuggles down next to Henry, along with Hoss (a live dog, it turns out) and the other pets, who are plush. Though Inglese admirably acknowledges the real importance of toys and imaginary friends in children’s lives, Vladimir is an anemic alternative to, say, wild things, Calvin’s tiger, Hobbes, or even the likes of Kevin Henkes’ Jessica (1989).
Aims high but misses. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-935874-22-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Satya House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
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