Pretty to look at, but a thin and iffy helping of natural history.
Birds aren’t the only nest builders hiding beneath these scallop-edged gatefolds.
Cochrane poses clues to answer the titular question in alliterative riddles that, clumsily, all end with a pair of questions: “Who am I?” and “Whose nest?” The questions have the same answer, which are given, as are the riddles themselves, in each animal’s first-person voice. Parting the double flaps on each recto reveals one of eight accurately rendered animals, ranging from an eagle and a hummingbird to a gecko, a clownfish and a bumblebee. Troughton creates idyllic, soft-focus, close-up nature scenes within which he tucks a glimpse of leg, tail or other visual clue for sharp-eyed young viewers to spot. On the other hand, he ignores both the tree frog’s “I climb up tree trunks and perch on lofty boughs,” and the bumblebee’s “I tunnel in the deep, dark earth,” depicting the frog at ground level in a wetland setting and bees' nests lying on the surface. Moreover, children on this side of the pond aren’t likely to encounter a dormouse (though it is pretty cute).
Pretty to look at, but a thin and iffy helping of natural history. (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60887-204-6
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Insight Editions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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