An important life message inexpertly conveyed.
Sometimes you have to leave to discover where home is.
Tiger and Cat are inseparable: They dance, play, eat, drink tea, and explore together. Then Tiger tells Cat he must go to Tiger Camp to “earn [his] stripes” and become a “real tiger.” Cat’s protestations that he has stripes and is a tiger already don’t help; both friends are heartbroken. Time passes. Cat continues the activities she once enjoyed with Tiger, while Tiger learns to live “wild.” Cat stops everyone she encounters who wears stripes, finally meeting a young, brown-skinned girl named Susie wearing a tiger costume. After hearing Cat’s sad tale, Susie transcribes a message that the feline dictates, which Cat recites aloud to an absent Tiger at bedtime. That night, Tiger dreams Cat tells him how much she misses him. The next day, Tiger returns, admitting that “Tiger Camp just wasn’t for me!” Tiger accepts his identity as it is, realizing he doesn’t have to change. This gentle Australian import conveys the empowering message that we should be proud of exactly who we are. Unfortunately, the writing is amateurish and sentimental, though the characters are sympathetic. The pleasant, delicately colored line drawings nicely capture expressive Tiger and Cat’s sweet, enduring bond, but readers’ understanding may be hampered somewhat if they don’t know the meaning of the idiomatic expression “earning one’s stripes.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An important life message inexpertly conveyed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-922610-50-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Berbay Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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