It may not be, as Mole says at the end, "pure platinum," but it's not too far off. (Picture book. 4-8)
When a friend’s in need, sometimes it does come down to “Just do it,” as one little mole learns.
That’s the big-hearted, selfless message in Crimi’s tale of Mole, the budding rock star who turns into jelly at the prospect of being on stage. In his bedroom he’s all swagger, like Mick Badger, and his friend Pig has witnessed his stuff. When Pig decides to put on a talent show, Mole reluctantly agrees to play but then cancels. Pig’s disappointed, though he doesn’t chide his friend. Then Pig finds himself in the lurch when his iPod breaks, and Mole comes to the rescue, taming the collywobbles by taking himself out of the picture and just doing it, because his friend needs him to. In this best of all worlds, Mole doesn’t crash and burn but smokes ’em with his blazing guitar. Despite all the anxiety floating around, Crimi keeps her touch light; doing the right thing becomes a vehicle for overcoming the sweats. She draws Mole as such a sympathetic soul that it’s easy to identify with his case of nerves and just as easy to feel uplift in his act. By now, one almost takes the prolific Munsinger’s happy-go-lucky artwork for granted, but that would be a crime. Her illustrations show their usual bonhomie, but they are also warm as a nest, somewhere to soothe worries away.
It may not be, as Mole says at the end, "pure platinum," but it's not too far off. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3166-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
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
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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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