Kid-friendly and full of action and gentle suspense, this selection will be a favorite of dog lovers and reluctant readers...
What if your dog just won’t?
Ben believes his buddy Buster is the best dog in the world—but Ben’s parents aren’t so sure. While he may be affectionate and enthusiastic, Buster also has a talent for making messes and getting a bit…overexcited, so he will be staying with Grampa instead of accompanying the family on vacation. How will Grampa know how to take care of Buster, though? At Mum’s suggestion, Ben writes notes, draws pictures, and sends many postcards to help Grampa out. Cartoon illustrations just as energetic as Buster himself show the pup as he froths and frolics, depicting both Ben’s love for his pup and Grampa’s consternation, while speech bubbles, notes, diagrams, and postcards add to the fun. Unfortunately, Ben initially forgets to communicate the most important rule: “Never take Buster to the post office! He knows that’s where mailmen come from.” Ben’s warning arrives too late, and after an unsuspecting Grampa takes Buster to pick up a package, Buster is banned from the post office forever. Can anything be done? Grampa decides to take matters into his own hands, and he just may have another way to help out.
Kid-friendly and full of action and gentle suspense, this selection will be a favorite of dog lovers and reluctant readers alike—and it comes with value-added dog-training tips. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-56145-884-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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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