Absolutely hilarious.
When Dad says Mika can get a pet, the kid gets carried away in this import from Germany by way of New Zealand.
Mika’s father promises they can go to the lake when his work’s finished. Bored playing alone, Mika tells Dad a pet will make it easier to let Dad work in peace. Dad distractedly gives Mika his wallet, and Mika selects a mouse at the pet store. When the store owner calls Dad to check about the mouse, Mika overhears Dad tell him, “Just sell the kid whatever.” Mika enjoys playing with the mouse, but the next morning he’s missing. Back at the pet store, Mika buys a puppy to help find the mouse. When the puppy finds the mouse but makes a mess in the bathroom, Mika buys a seal to oversee the bathroom. Then comes a penguin to teach the mouse how to swim in the tub, a parrot to cheer up the sulking penguin, and a baby elephant to drown out the parrot’s chatter. Oblivious to the messy menagerie exploding within his house, Mika’s workaholic father finishes his project and is ready for that lake trip. But what about the new pets? Lively, colorful illustrations drawn in loose black outlines track this incredible saga of a bored kid, an opportunistic pet-shop owner, and a clueless father in comic double-page spreads chronicling Mika’s wild, unsupervised activities, culminating in a surprising climax. With the exception of a few people at the lake, all characters present White.
Absolutely hilarious. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-776573-85-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 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
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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