Massie’s zoo tale from 1963 gets a colorful remake, thanks to a set of typically effervescent illustrations from Kellogg (The Three Sillies, 1999, etc.). Just as the zoo’s drowsy denizens are beginning to drift off after closing time, a piercing “beebee bobbibobbi beebee bobbibobbi” rings through the night from the newly arrived baby beebee bird. Cheerfully ignoring a collective roar to PIPE DOWN, the nocturnal singer keeps everyone sleepless until dawn. Weariness and annoyance are writ hilariously large on the faces of Kellogg’s rumpled menagerie the morning after. Eager to prevent another long night, the animals bellow out their own “BEEBEEBOBBI” chorus to keep the beebee bird awake all day, so that by nightfall everyone, bird included, is ready for slumber land. Changes in typeface, size, and color add visual interest as well as cues for volume and pacing; simplified backgrounds, often just a large disk representing the sun or moon, will help keep the more easily distracted viewers’ attention on the animals. The new oversized format is a distinct improvement, too, since the original was difficult to use in a group setting. Young listeners will find the invitation to chime in on the Beebee Bird’s irritating continuo utterly irresistible, but this makes an eminently suitable candidate for bedtime reading nonetheless. Hooray for the return of the baby beebee bird. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2000
ISBN: 0-06-028083-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
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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