The true natures of these three characters shine as they problem-solve and share fairly.
How would you share a blueberry pie?
Readers of this second book in the series learn more about Really Bird, Pup, and Cat when they have a pie picnic in the park. True to their name, Really Bird is really hungry and really wants a piece of the blueberry pie now. After a quick argument about who is better at serving pie, Cat challenges Dog to cut three pieces that are all the same size, and that’s when things become really complicated. Should everyone get the same size piece? After all, they are all different sizes. But Really Bird is “REALLY STARVING.” Who should get the biggest piece? And what happens when one piece is messier than another or is missing part of the crust? Luckily, Pup keeps trying and finally finds a solution that makes everyone happy. There’s even one piece left over that Really Bird is really happy to share with new park friends, a rabbit, a squirrel, and a mouse. Brightly colored speech bubbles and cartoon illustrations with minimal details against a neutral background make reading both the text and the illustrations easy for new readers. The book closes with discussion questions about what to do in a real-life situation involving cutting slices of pie or cake and what to do when sharing isn’t “purr-fect,” as Cat would put it. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The true natures of these three characters shine as they problem-solve and share fairly. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63655-019-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Red Comet Press
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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