Deftly intertwines observations on nature with moments in a child’s everyday life.
Seasons and swallows whirl through a year in a child’s rural life.
Favoring denim overalls and long brown hair with bangs, the light-skinned narrator romps as the swallows’ lives unfold. A small barn, house, and henhouse are the backdrop for the changes that 12 months bring to rolling farmland. Vivid language enlivens this quiet appreciation of avian life. In spring, the swallows’ nests “bloom with hungry chicks, their buttercup-bright mouths open wide”; the acrobatic birds “rocket,” “flit,” “slip,” “skim,” and “loop-the-loop.” The narrator, accompanied by a delighted dog, races downhill like the birds. In summer, dressed in a pink-checked swimsuit, the child jumps through a sprinkler while swallows fly through the spray, “their blue backs glittering.” In autumn the narrator is “cozy-sweatered”; the idling school bus “grumbles.” Winter brings snow and chickadees while the swallows are far south. In early spring, the “snuggle-sweatered” child’s rainboots pinch. Finally, the swallows reappear: “Their sharp wings flash like scissors as they slice through the sky,” and the narrator, “new-booted and sweater-free,” welcomes them. A refrain—“days slip by”—conveys the passage of time. Graceful barn swallows, with curved, tapering wings, pointed split tails, and aerial acrobatics, are a gift to a skilled illustrator, and Mason delivers. Compositions are varied, with close-ups and middle-distance portrayals, while the birds’ migration offers sky-view perspectives. Against a subdued palette, the blue swallows shimmer.
Deftly intertwines observations on nature with moments in a child’s everyday life. (swallow facts) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781534112742
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader!
Fun with friends makes for a great day.
Norbit, a salmon-colored worm with a pink kerchief, joyfully greets the day and everyone he encounters. “Hello, friends! It’s time for fun with the sun! Let’s play!” He and his menagerie of forest pals—including the sun, who grows limbs and descends from the sky—exuberantly engage in various forms of physical activity such as jumping, going down a slide, spinning around, and watching the clouds go by. Young readers will readily relate, as these are games that most children are familiar with. As day turns to night, Norbit says farewell to Sun and welcomes Moon with an invitation to continue the fun. Watkins has created a vivid world of movement and merriment. Her illustrations feature bright bursts of color that match the energy of the text, with most sentences ending in an exclamation point. The author/illustrator incorporates many elements that make for an ideal early-reading experience (despite the use of a contraction or two): art free from clutter, text consisting of words with only one or two syllables, and repetition and recurring bits, such as a continued game of hide-and-seek with Sun. Inspired by never-before-seen sketches from the Dr. Seuss Collection archives at the University of California San Diego, this is the first title for Seuss Studios, a new imprint for original stories from “emerging authors and illustrators” who “honor Seuss’s hallmark spirit of creativity and imagination.”
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader! (author's note) (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593646212
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Seuss Studios
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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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