This friendship story sticks out.
Rupert the rhino is a bit put off by Levi the tickbird’s enthusiastic attachment to him.
Harrison mines the symbiotic relationship between real rhinos and tickbirds in her humorous story about anthropomorphic animals at school. Rupert is proper, socially awkward, and self-conscious, while silly Levi, the new kid at school, brims with exuberance and confidence. He tags along with (often literally on) an increasingly mortified Rupert, and the natural world informs the story when Rupert is embarrassed by Levi’s loud enjoyment of ticks he plucks from his body in the cafeteria. “Yummy! Tastes like chicken!” Levi jokes in front of an offended hen and a mortified Rupert, who eventually decides “Levi has got to go.” He tries various means of ridding himself of Levi, whose ever generous and loyal responses to various passive-aggressive moves stymie the rhino. Finally, Rupert directly tells Levi to back off, saying “I find your boisterousness a tad loathsome,” and “Your uncouthness is slightly problematic.” Predictably, but nevertheless satisfyingly so, Rupert ends up missing Levi when the bird, hurt and confused, grants the rhino the space he wants. Throughout, the text’s humor is matched by Harrison’s lively illustrations, which excel in visual characterization and provide funny asides to extend the story. The clothed animals are a stitch, both entirely animal and completely human.
This friendship story sticks out. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-18665-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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
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