by Alison Lester ; illustrated by Alison Lester ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 11, 2019
A sweet tale of friends helping friends.
After Noni the Pony and pals Coco (a cat) and Dave (a dog) meet a young wallaby on the trail, they help him find his family.
Continuing her rhyming series, Lester lets Noni the Pony do what she does best—run free in the Australian hills. Noni is exploring with her two friends when they discover a lost, distressed wallaby joey. Thinking his family group, also called a mob, must be near, the four animals start looking. On their way, they meet several well-known Australian animals such as a koala, a wombat, a platypus, and an emu as well as others perhaps less familiar to American readers, such as an echidna, a possum, a goanna, and a quoll. Unfortunately, “no one has spotted the wallaby mob, / and Joey’s small sniffle becomes a big sob,” so Noni invites Joey to her home. It’s there that they find Joey’s wallaby family, and everyone celebrates their reunion by the light of the moon. This simple tale is a nifty introduction to Australian animals and their homes. As a read-aloud, the dialogue will need a bit of practice to keep the meter. Illustrations are colorful and detailed, with splashes of humor (Noni and Dave have identical orange-and-white coloring, and the cow chorus line is a hoot), but the wallaby family is shown as a father, mother and two children when usually only one wallaby is born at a time.
A sweet tale of friends helping friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 11, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4370-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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