Silvestro and Mai-Wyss make plain the joys of intellectual curiosity and exploration, and their message is clear: Libraries...
Bunny goes to school to accompany his book buddy from the library.
Now that Bunny and his friends have library cards (Bunny’s Book Club, 2017), they meet every Saturday to enjoy all that the library has to offer: audiobooks, the computer, arts and crafts, puzzles, and, of course, books. For Bunny, Saturdays mean spending time with his new book buddy, Josie, who recommends and helps him read new books. But one fall day, Josie isn’t herself. She’s worried about making friends in her new school. Bunny’s solution? Why, to be her friend at school, of course. Monday’s parade to school grows and grows until all nine animal book-club friends are at the school searching for Josie…and then, one by one, the animals are distracted by all the new places and interesting things going on: basketball, a computer room, the science lab. Only Bunny is left to find Josie. And then he enters the library. Will he remember his goal? Friendship wins out in the end, and everyone finishes the school day with new pals. Mai-Wyss’ animals are endearing and full of curiosity, kindness, and caring. Josie and the librarian have brown skin and Afro-textured hair; the schoolchildren are diverse.
Silvestro and Mai-Wyss make plain the joys of intellectual curiosity and exploration, and their message is clear: Libraries and schools are wonderful places to learn, grow, and seek your joy. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-64464-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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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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