A winning combo of easy-to-draw figures and a wacky, interactive storyline with a subtle emotional point.
An inevitable and much-anticipated follow-up to the team’s How To Draw a Happy Cat (2022).
“Chickens are known for being…well…chicken,” an unseen narrator admits, “but follow these instructions and you can draw a brave chicken.” Simple directions ensue: an oval for the chicken’s body, dots for her eyes. Uh-oh. A frightened Chicken hides behind a pail. Giving her a knight’s suit of armor and a horse will make her look brave; the narrator explains how to draw these items. Then a dragon arrives. What will make Chicken feel brave? Friends on a trampoline can help (among them Cat, the hero of Berlin and Matison’s earlier book). The dragon flies off, and, feeling courageous, Chicken wants to pursue. She asks for a rocket ship, which the narrator initially rejects. But when Chicken begins crying, the narrator quickly agrees. A rocket ship takes the friends to the moon, where the ravenous dragon awaits. Chicken proposes a creative solution: drawing an ice cream truck. Bits of bright color enhance the action, while Chicken’s path to bravery will gently bolster many young readers. Matison’s firm linework and clear steps make replicating his charmingly childlike drawings look doable, inviting kids to try. It’s a blast, and as the narrative concludes, Chicken has proof that she’s brave—but now her pal Dog is hiding under the pail. Stay tuned.
A winning combo of easy-to-draw figures and a wacky, interactive storyline with a subtle emotional point. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9781662640643
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Hippo Park/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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