Poor science and poor storytelling make for a poor combination.
Porcupine’s picnic grows ever larger as new animals arrive with their own food choices until an unexpected guest alters the camaraderie.
Eager to share his basket full of clover, Porcupine learns that each of his friends has a preference. Koala likes eucalyptus leaves. Squirrel sticks with acorns. Giraffe snacks on tree leaves, Goat enjoys alfalfa, and Elephant chews on tree bark. The gathering grows with a dizzying assortment of herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores: Chicken, Panda, Reindeer, Zebra, Baboon, Anteater, Black Bear, Bald Eagle, Toad, and Weasel all politely ask to join and provide a sampling of their food selections. Digital art depicts an amiable atmosphere, its characters appearing flat and unnaturally sweet. None of the meat-eating animals seem at all tempted by their companions until Tiger appears, declaring his dinner choice (everyone) and causing the rest to scatter in all directions. The repetitious, sometimes-tedious text diligently samples a worldwide list of animals from all three eating groups, as outlined in the author’s note. The simplistic story cannot, of course, accurately represent the specificity of most of these animals’ diets, and the fact that their habitats vary wildly is elided.
Poor science and poor storytelling make for a poor combination. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4677-9519-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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