Giggling readers won’t duck out from playing the game once they’ve savored this funny tale.
Duck, duck…who?
That’s what literal-minded Goose wants to know when, seated among various animal pals playing the familiar circle game, callers keep tagging the “goose”—but the other animals, not the actual goose in their midst. Continually bypassed, Goose becomes incensed and increasingly disruptive. Rabbit, irate after repeated attempts to calm Goose down with assurances that eventually everyone will have a turn, demands order. Goose presents a chart that lists physical characteristics of geese and nongeese! By now civility is in shambles, and furious Rabbit threatens to end the game. Chastened, players reconvene, the game resumes, and lo, Goose is finally tagged! But then…a new group of (hint) waddling players comes along—just when it’s Goose’s turn to be the caller—throwing an unexpected, hilarious wrench into the proceedings and bringing the story to a riotous conclusion. This honking good tale is told entirely through speech balloons, with dialogue that reveals much about characters’ distinctive personalities; additional comic relief is supplied by a trio of red squirrels, wryly commenting on the goings-on from their tree perch. Delicate cartoon illustrations add wit and humorous energy to the frenetic events, including expressive faces and the dapper attire in which the players are dressed: Goose sports a backward blue baseball cap, for instance.
Giggling readers won’t duck out from playing the game once they’ve savored this funny tale. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-84159-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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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