The (ample) fun is in the details.
Oscar the mole has a secret ambition—to become a detective.
Oscar is a chef; but he reads mysteries and thrillers, and he has “a nose that knows” (he’s sniffed out the secret ingredient in Aunt Mole’s stink bug stew: earthworm). With his “eye for details” (questionable) and his deerstalker hat and trench coat, he knows he would make an excellent gumshoe. He just needs a case. When Grandpa Squirrel goes missing, Oscar is ready for action. He sketches a detailed (if, um, imprecise) picture of the subject and questions the forest dwellers. Then he investigates the crime scene and interrogates known criminals like the magpie. He knows not to fall for false leads. He gathers his evidence and tries to connect it. A walk to the lake might clear his mind…or put him where he needs to be to learn the most important quality of a true detective: being in the right place at the right time. Deftly translated from the Italian by Bibo, Pintonato’s charming tale of a bumbling, want-to-be woodland detective is told in a mix of narration and speech bubbles. The sly cartoon illustrations of clothed creatures, created in Photoshop, provide much of the humor. Budding detectives will solve the case long before Oscar and catch the many crimes he misses. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The (ample) fun is in the details. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-305178-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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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