A slim little book of clever rhymes and visual puns with an unfinished production quality and abrupt divide between phrases...
How many ways can you ask someone what’s happening? Uncle Mo (The Valentine’s Day Train, 2014) comes up with several alternate, rhyming ways to broach the question in this silly picture book of puns.
“What’s the Laugh Giraffe?” both the text and the title ask a giggling giraffe. According to the illustration, the creature is rendered helpless by the hilarious joke of a hyena comedian. Next, a toddler drops his treat, and the text asks, “What’s the cry cutie pie?” Seven unique ways of asking about someone’s day feature various animals and objects (a pepper grinder causes a large wedge of cheese to sneeze; a tooth-brushing crocodile brandishes his pearly whites at a mirror). After the final question, in which a sheep is counting sheep in his dreams, several rhyming words are paired in black-and-white sketches. A rock climber illustrates the difference between “steep” and “deep.” Clothing is a “pile” on a “tile” floor. The divide in structure is abrupt, and readers may feel almost as though Uncle Mo ran out of ways to turn his rhymes into questions. The rhymes themselves are clever but not so odd that young readers will find them confusing. The number of words per page should make this a confidence-building book for beginning readers, although the inclusion of some tougher phonetic words (calf/half) may create a challenge. The production value is underwhelming. The line work appears sketchy rather than finalized, so though the illustrations are well-drawn, they look unfinished. Despite those flaws, preschools and kindergarten classrooms looking to expand rhyming word sections may find Uncle Mo’s selections useful for discussions. The seven greetings included in the book make a great starting exercise for children to design their own rhyming introductions following the same structure.
A slim little book of clever rhymes and visual puns with an unfinished production quality and abrupt divide between phrases and rhyming pairs.Pub Date: March 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5087-8015-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: 1970
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
