Those kids ready to wrap their heads around musk ox’s anarchic approach, though, will likely find their (singular) stomachs...
More crazy hijinks from the irrepressible musk ox and his sidekick control-freak zebra will engender belly laughs in Cabatingan and Myers’ highly original sequel to the wild and wacky alphabet book A Is for Musk Ox (2012).
Zebra’s efforts to establish traditional counting-book order are foiled right from the first page as the musk ox is seen disappearing from his prescribed position as “1 musk ox.” Things only gets more zany on 2, where he is pictured consorting with two fetching female yaks, thereby ruining the concept of 2 by inserting himself as a third animal. By 4, he is again hijacking poor zebra’s concept, scaring away the 4 birds and replacing them with the less-attractive 4 stomachs (“just like cows”). More ridiculous scenarios bedevil the animals’ futile attempt to complete the counting series. Six snails have been eaten by the four birds that the musk ox scared away; 10 dogs run away, leaving zebra and musk ox using their eight legs plus two heads to make up the number. This approach is deliberately challenging and will only work for children who are already completely comfortable with counting; those who are not will likely find this terminally confusing.
Those kids ready to wrap their heads around musk ox’s anarchic approach, though, will likely find their (singular) stomachs sore from laughing. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59643-798-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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