Wonderfully wacky.
Cockatoos and their toucan buddies (Cockatoo, Too, 2015) are once again the stars of a wacky adventure.
This time the silliness involves two toucans’ misinterpretation of the cockatoos’ intentions regarding two cans. Each of two cockatoos brings a can of food and a large cooking utensil to a wooden bowl sitting on the jungle floor. As they pour the food into the bowl, they spot the toucans, who hear them say “Toucans, too,” but think they said “Toucan stew.” Naturally the toucans run for their lives as the cockatoos give chase, trying desperately to clear up the misconception. Reassured, the toucans come back in a canoe with two cans of their own. Readers will need to watch out for the gnus as they start out across the water and come closer and closer with each development so they might share in the stew too. A very few words in various combinations are arranged, in large, widely spaced type, across double-page spreads on white backgrounds. The setting is filled with many shades of green, inviting blue water, and a softly clouded sky. The creatures express their emotions with changes in their eyes and beaks. The toucans appear especially demented as they put on the brakes when they visualize toucan stew. And then there are the cuckoos. The words twist, and the fun escalates.
Wonderfully wacky. (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0421-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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