The Unlimited Squirrels series finds its footing in the identifiable.
Crank the irritation level up to HIGH as the latest Unlimited Squirrels offering explores a quintessential childhood feeling.
Frustration has its day, and in many different forms. Willems has always used his Unlimited Squirrels as a way to deliver easy-reader sketch-comedy segments à la Laugh-In or Hee-Haw. Running gags pop up periodically, like Happy Squirrel’s repeatedly thwarted attempts to say something only to be repeatedly stopped by the stage manager. There are the customary groan-inducing “It’s Acorn-y Joke Time” gags. And there are the longer sections, like a legitimately amusing storyline involving Zoom Squirrel discovering new emotions. Research Rodent is on hand, asking the squirrels how they deal with frustrations; their helpful responses include taking deep breaths, solving problems new ways, and counting lucky stars. Whether kids will retain these lessons is by no means a given, but they provide a nice breather (no pun intended) between the jokes. Little wonder that this book is one of the more enjoyable outings with the Willems squirrels. After all, the author did make his name with a pigeon book that leaned heavily on that very same emotion. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The Unlimited Squirrels series finds its footing in the identifiable. (Easy reader. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-368-07482-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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