An elegant artistic statement, but readers looking for a story on self-esteem will be disappointed.
Rhinoceros is not sure about his looks and wishes he were someone else, but his friends and one experience leave him feeling better.
“Here comes Rhinoceros. / Beautiful as a mountain. / A tiny bird settles on his back, / gentle as a snowflake.” Rhinoceros is sad because his horn is crooked and wishes he were “free like that snowflake,” in his imagination flying around with different sets of wings and even balloons. His fellow animals tell him they need him to protect them, and when the storm comes, he shelters the tiny bird with his mighty body, leaving him feeling better. The animals, which are lightly anthropomorphized (the meerkat carries a red umbrella), are drawn with great attention to texture on largely blank pages and in earthy colors accentuated in red, giving the illustrations a collagelike and contemporary art feel. However, the elliptical text does not live up to the quality of the artwork, and many readers will find the language disjointed and prose forced (possibly as a result of the translation from German). Moreover, some of the similes will most likely escape the comprehension of younger readers (“Curious as a mountain”?), who will likely also find the storyline—the rhino laughs as the bird is blown off his back before returning off-page—difficult to follow.
An elegant artistic statement, but readers looking for a story on self-esteem will be disappointed. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55455-448-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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