A chipper reminder that being a leader is about more than being first—it requires consideration and creative problem-solving.
Is Really Bird really the leader here?
Most kids love to be first, but can they be good leaders? This funny, upbeat series opener addresses that question. Really Bird, who lives in a city park and has two best friends, Cat and Pup, is never just happy, sad, or thirsty—rather, they are “REALLY happy,” “REALLY sad,” or “REALLY thirsty.” Today, Really Bird is REALLY tired of being last, so Cat and Pup offer to let their friend lead. And Really Bird does, first up a hill and then up a tree. While Pup manages to scramble to the tree’s canopy, comically exaggerated illustrations show that she is far from comfortable there. Really Bird suggests a solution, and Cat finds a way to help Pup reach the ground. On the ground, an argument promptly ensues about who got to the ground first. Pup quickly ends the bickering, and Really Bird is delighted to lead the trio home. The more detailed illustrations that open the book anchor the friends in the park, but most of the art features brightly colored characters against an uncluttered background, with color-coded speech bubbles of just a few words. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A chipper reminder that being a leader is about more than being first—it requires consideration and creative problem-solving. (discussion questions) (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63655-018-3
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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