Oddly sterile for a book that’s all about love.
An end to the travails of being loved too much is negotiated like peace talks.
Michael and Bo are close friends. Michael is a young boy, and Bo is of the genus lab mouse—all white and pink—on steroids. Bo is hyperactive and a slob and a hog, but he also radiates the ineffable charm of the drunken uncle who puts a lampshade on his head. Like the drunken uncle, a little bit can go a long way, and though Michael loves Bo, he can’t catch a break from him either (even in the de rigueur bathroom moment). Fed up, Michael locks Bo in the house and goes off to play with his friends—all of whom wonder why Bo, their favorite mouse, isn’t in tow. Michaels misses the beast, too, though things have to change. So Michael returns home and draws up a contract stipulating certain behavioral constraints. Michael’s need for personal space is certainly understandable, but to make it a legal issue drains a critical measure of warmth from the relationship. Perhaps it is best to stand back a bit and read the book as a cautionary tale: Friends, like pets (except cats and ball pythons), don’t demand attention so much as they require it. Where the big mouse/big mouth comes into the picture is a mystery, unless it’s just there for the obvious joke. The color and texture of the artwork resembles a piece of cake one might find tucked deep in the freezer.
Oddly sterile for a book that’s all about love. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 17, 2014
ISBN: 978-1477847282
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end.
Something is preventing Owl from falling asleep.
Owl leans back against his white pillow and headboard. “Squeek!” says something underneath the bed. Owl’s never heard that sound before, so he fastens his pink bathrobe and answers the front door. Nobody. It must be the wind; back to bed. Bidding himself goodnight, he climbs into bed—and hears the noise again. Time after time, he pops out of bed seeking the squeaker. Is it in the cupboard? He empties the shelves. Under the floor? He pulls up his floorboards. As Owl’s actions ratchet up—he destroys the roof and smashes the walls, all in search of the squeak—so does his anxiety. Not until he hunkers down in bed under the night sky (his bed is now outdoors, because the house’s roof and walls are gone), frantically clutching his pillow, does he see what readers have seen all along: a small, gray mouse. In simple illustrations with black outlines, textured coloring, and foreshortened perspective, Pizzoli plays mischievously with mouse placement. Sometimes the mouse is behind Owl or just out of his sightline; other times, the mouse is on a solid, orange-colored page across the spread from Owl, which removes him from Owl’s scene in a rather postmodern manner. Is the mouse toying with Owl? Who knows?
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1275-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Animated and educational.
A hare and a ground squirrel banter about the differences between related animals that are often confused for one another.
Jack is “no Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail,” but a “H-A-R-E, hare!” Like sheep and goats, or turtles and tortoises, rabbits and hares may look similar, but hares are bigger, their fur changes color in the winter, and they are born with their eyes wide open. As the ground squirrel (not to be mistaken for a chipmunk (even though Jack cheekily calls it “Chippie”) and Jack engage in playful discussion about animals, a sneaky coyote prowls after them through the Sonoran Desert. This picture book conveys the full narrative in spirited, speech-bubbled dialogue set on expressive illustrations of talking animals. Dark outlines around the characters make their shapes pop against the softly blended colors of the desert backgrounds. Snappy back-and-forth paired with repetition and occasional rhyme enhances the story’s appeal as a read-aloud. As the story progresses, the colors of the sky shift from dawn to dusk, providing subtle, visual bookends for the narrative. One page of backmatter offers a quick guide to eight easily confused pairs, and a second turns a subsequent exploration of the book into a seek-and-find of 15 creatures (and one dessert) hidden in the desert. Unfortunately, while most of the creatures from the seek-and-find appear in poses that match the illustrations in the challenge, not all of them are consistently represented. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 53.3% of actual size.)
Animated and educational. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-12506-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
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