A fun spoof.
A bug’s busy day highlights the many varied jobs of a police officer.
In rollicking rhymes with spot-on rhythms, Mortensen presents her hero: “9 A.M. / Behind the wheel, / riding in / my Bug Mobile. / Coffee, cruller, / cruise control. / I’m Captain Bob, / Bug Patrol.” Sound-effect balloons contain the radio messages from the dispatcher sending him to trouble spots: the ant swarm at the donut, beetle parking troubles, speeding spiders on low riders, a picket line at the Roach Motel, a lost baby flea and some crickets partying too loudly. While Capt. Bob’s solutions may not completely reflect real life—the ants get lectured about rudeness and helping ants in need—they are creative: Capt. Bob gives the picketing roaches a ride to more suitable accommodations…at the landfill. Challenging vocabulary will stretch readers' knowledge while giving them the context and picture clues they need to decipher them—perpetrators, urban, picket line, dignified—though some humor is clearly meant to tickle adult readers’ funny bones. Bell’s acrylic-and-ink illustrations nicely echo the tongue-in-cheek tone of the text. Her bugs wear clothes, drive cars and have fully expressive faces—the bad-boy natures of those speeding spiders are easy to discern. The speckled texture in her artwork lends itself nicely to all the scenes, whether urban street, bright green grass or fur on the back of a dog.
A fun spoof. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-618-79024-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
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
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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