A light, comic look at two bodily functions with high child appeal—but not noteworthy nonfiction.
The logical successor to Bennett’s previous “classics,” The Butt Book and Poopendous! (2010, 2012).
This snicker-inducing topic will be difficult for kids to resist. Those wayward gasses are always escaping—children might as well learn their physiology. Breaking his windy subject into two sections (with farts getting the lion’s share of the attention), Bennett focuses on burps first. Loose, rhyming couplets make mention of trapped gasses and the fizz of soda. But readers will have to decipher a bit on their own as well. “Talk too much when chomping chow?” is a nifty way to make a rhyme with “cow,” but it does not lend itself to an immediate understanding that one can swallow air while chewing. The second part is dedicated to farts. Let’s face it, they are far more fun. Greenish-yellow puffs and smell lines abound. A bit more science is offered here; microbes and bacteria are introduced, though they are never fully explained. If nothing else, young readers can practice counting to 14 during the calendarlike spread depicting the average number of farts per day. Sentences proclaiming themselves “facts” are appended at the end, though some are debatable. Can the definition of “morning thunder” really fall under that category?
A light, comic look at two bodily functions with high child appeal—but not noteworthy nonfiction. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60905-392-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Apple
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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
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
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