Cat lovers will be instantly smitten, and even those who aren’t as immediately enthusiastic may well be won over by this...
Striking illustrations and a pitch-perfect portrait of an unnamed pet’s personality combine to showcase charming (and practical) advice on how to make friends with a feline.
A large black cat with yellow eyes narrates, but on some pages the cat appears instead to be red, blue or purple. These color shifts effectively convey changes in emotion, activity or time of day and definitely add to the visual appeal but do run the risk of confusing young listeners. The cat’s litany begins: “If I could pick a best friend…” and then catalogs desired qualities. Many subsequent sentences echo the opening by including the phrase “I’d pick a friend…” While none of the criteria detailed are unexpected (no yelling or dragging, privacy when appropriate and good rubs make the list, for example), Wahman injects plenty of visual humor to keep things interesting. Bright colors, off-kilter perspectives and stylized, exaggerated shapes bring her eye-catching artwork to life. Some paintings are reminiscent of Matisse, while others are cozier and more realistic. The final sentence circles back to the beginning and speaks directly to readers: “If I could pick a best friend in the whole wide world…I would pick YOU!”
Cat lovers will be instantly smitten, and even those who aren’t as immediately enthusiastic may well be won over by this slinky, strong-minded, creature . (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8942-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...
Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.
Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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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