Why spend $17.99 when you can listen to it for free on YouTube? (Picture book. 4-8)
Just because a YouTube music video garners a zillion hits, you can’t assume it will make a good picture book.
In fact, it’s usually pretty safe to assume the opposite, as the earworm aspect of a viral video is lost in a pictorial medium that depends on, usually, an amateur reader for sound. This hastily assembled picture book of Europop sensation Ylvis’ video—just over 3 months old at the date of the book’s publication—is no exception. Norwegian Hans Christian Andersen nominee Nyhus creates surreal digital paintings in grays, russets and browns that present the titular fox and other animals in a dizzying variety of attitudes. “Dizzying” is the operative word, as many of the animals’ shapes are distorted as if in a fun-house mirror, and details often crowd the spreads. They do their best but ultimately cannot wrest readers’ focus from such banal lines as, “Your fur is red. / So beautiful, / like an angel in disguise.” Words and syntax arbitrarily wedged into a rhythmic rhyme scheme are a lot easier to forgive in a song than on the printed page. The book should come alive during the authors’ energetic riffs on what a fox might actually say—“Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! / … / Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!”—but as these and similar lines plop down in two triplet sets per page and do not come with an electronic assist, they bring the reading to a halt rather than galvanizing it. It all begs one critical question:
Why spend $17.99 when you can listen to it for free on YouTube? (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2223-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2013
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader!
Fun with friends makes for a great day.
Norbit, a salmon-colored worm with a pink kerchief, joyfully greets the day and everyone he encounters. “Hello, friends! It’s time for fun with the sun! Let’s play!” He and his menagerie of forest pals—including the sun, who grows limbs and descends from the sky—exuberantly engage in various forms of physical activity such as jumping, going down a slide, spinning around, and watching the clouds go by. Young readers will readily relate, as these are games that most children are familiar with. As day turns to night, Norbit says farewell to Sun and welcomes Moon with an invitation to continue the fun. Watkins has created a vivid world of movement and merriment. Her illustrations feature bright bursts of color that match the energy of the text, with most sentences ending in an exclamation point. The author/illustrator incorporates many elements that make for an ideal early-reading experience (despite the use of a contraction or two): art free from clutter, text consisting of words with only one or two syllables, and repetition and recurring bits, such as a continued game of hide-and-seek with Sun. Inspired by never-before-seen sketches from the Dr. Seuss Collection archives at the University of California San Diego, this is the first title for Seuss Studios, a new imprint for original stories from “emerging authors and illustrators” who “honor Seuss’s hallmark spirit of creativity and imagination.”
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader! (author's note) (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593646212
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Seuss Studios
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his...
It’s a wonderful day in the jungle, so why’s Jim Panzee so grumpy?
When Jim woke up, nothing was right: "The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and bananas were too sweet." Norman the gorilla asks Jim why he’s so grumpy, and Jim insists he’s not. They meet Marabou, to whom Norman confides that Jim’s grumpy. When Jim denies it again, Marabou points out that Jim’s shoulders are hunched; Jim stands up. When they meet Lemur, Lemur points out Jim’s bunchy eyebrows; Jim unbunches them. When he trips over Snake, Snake points out Jim’s frown…so Jim puts on a grimacelike smile. Everyone has suggestions to brighten his mood: dancing, singing, swinging, swimming…but Jim doesn’t feel like any of that. He gets so fed up, he yells at his animal friends and stomps off…then he feels sad about yelling. He and Norman (who regrets dancing with that porcupine) finally just have a sit and decide it’s a wonderful day to be grumpy—which, of course, makes them both feel a little better. Suzanne Lang’s encouragement to sit with your emotions (thus allowing them to pass) is nearly Buddhist in its take, and it will be great bibliotherapy for the crabby, cranky, and cross. Oscar-nominated animator Max Lang’s cartoony illustrations lighten the mood without making light of Jim’s mood; Jim has comically long arms, and his facial expressions are quite funny.
Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his journey. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-553-53786-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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