This fantasy field trip is one kids are better off skipping.
Shark Dog enlivens a field trip to the great outdoors.
Ms. Ablett invites the child narrator’s father along since he’s a famous explorer, and “it made sense for Shark Dog to join the fun” as well. The trip to the woods starts off as any might, the racially diverse students using magnifying glasses to examine creepy-crawlies and record their finds. But Shark Dog’s arrival at a pond full of identical-looking “frogs and toads” puts an end to the normalcy. And after the kids see tons of flora and fauna on the nature trail, lunch brings rain and mud, which is Shark Dog’s favorite! Afterward, the students pair up to find “something interesting,” many of them bringing their finds back to the group. (Shark Dog brings a branch still attached to a portion of trunk, in the hollow of which sits a perturbed owl.) But the big find (thanks to Shark Dog’s nose) is a bear cub trapped under a fallen tree. The group works together to free it (nothing is said about mama bear) and follows Shark Dog’s sniffer back to the bus. Adamson’s cartoony pencil-and-watercolor illustrations are bright, cheery, and busy, but the outdoor etiquette shown in them is not always spot-on (kids feed a squirrel from their lunches, for example), and the round white eyes of the wildlife give them a rather manic look. The narrator, Dad, and Ms. Ablett all present white.
This fantasy field trip is one kids are better off skipping. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-245718-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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