Don’t wait until it’s freezing to share Turkey’s tongue-testing tale of wordplay and kindness.
A f-f-fun f-f-friendship frolic!
It’s 10 degrees outside when Turkey wakes up cold. Cold Turkey! Get it? The puns and humorous wordplay keep coming. With beak-chattering alliterative commentary, Turkey adds layers and layers of warm clothing. “I need to b-b-bundle up / before I f-f-freeze!” On a tour of the barnyard, Turkey finds his friends are in distress, too. Sheep is “sh-sh-shivering” but still making puns. “I can’t baa-lieve this storm’s so baad!” Cow declares, “This wind is a cow-tastrophy! / It’s udderly insane.” Pig “p-p-pok[es] out / from p-p-piles of straw. / ‘My body’s numb, from snout to bum.’ ” The compassionate friend that he is, Turkey leaves his hat with Sheep, his mittens with Chicken, his scarf with Horse, his sweater to warm Cow’s udder, and his snow pants for Pig. Turkey’s “loaned out all his loot. / He wobble[s] homeward, cold and bare, / in just his birthday suit! / Turkey t-t-totter[s]. / ‘What a fierce, ferocious storm! / I may be getting frostbite, / but at least my heart feels warm.’ ” But his friends make sure more than just Turkey’s heart is warm by building a fire that comforts them all. Otis’ genial cartoons add touches of humor on their own as Turkey distributes his layers to his friends. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Don’t wait until it’s freezing to share Turkey’s tongue-testing tale of wordplay and kindness. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-43011-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
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 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
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