A fun pet romp for new readers of chapter books.
Sunny the pug’s life is satisfying until her owner brings home a younger dog, Rosy, who is very annoying.
Using numerous minimalist drawings and brief, large-print text, this early chapter book gently relates an adult dog’s challenging adjustment to a rambunctious puppy. Sunny mostly enjoys her solitary life: a morning snack (if her human remembers to put it out), followed by yoga, a little television, arranging her stuffed toys, and maybe a nice nap. The arrival of exuberant Rosy makes all of her customary activities hard to enjoy. Then Rosy accidentally throws Sunny’s favorite toy out the window and later, feeling guilty, runs off to find it. Sunny knows her duty and goes to locate and bring back the younger dog, in the process discovering that she’s come to love her little sister. Ahn’s spare illustrations are the stars of this show, using just a few lines to evoke emotion, drama, and especially humor. Although many pages include just a sentence or two of text, some of the words, such as “surveillance,” “anticipated,” and “stealthily,” will stretch the young intended audience. Considering how brief the text is, the two dogs leap, lifelike, off the pages, Sunny reserved and just a bit surly and Rosy fired with youthful enthusiasm.
A fun pet romp for new readers of chapter books. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-11845-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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
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BOOK REVIEW
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A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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