A hilarious romp through the Big Apple.
Nine-year-old Su walks her poodle, Dutch, through New York, “pawsing” at some popular landmarks.
The author biography hints that this South Korean import is inspired by Lee’s actual dog, though the real Dutch is probably neither magenta nor the size of an elephant. Still, this larger-than-life portrayal certainly makes him easy to spot. Su responds to his urgent request for relief with a meandering walk that takes the two from the city’s longest slide on Governor’s Island to the dino skeletons and blue whale at the American Museum of Natural History. But her repeated “How about right here?” is invariably met with some objection—the Empire State Building is too high, the Statue of Liberty is watching (it is, too, with a comically forbidding stare), Times Square is too bright—until, at last, a tree outside their apartment proves the perfect spot to let go. “YESSS! SOOOO GOOD!” Though this may not be a comprehensive guide for tourists, Lee’s itinerary includes some favorites such as the renowned children’s bookstore Books of Wonder and Joe’s Pizza; her street and subway scenes likewise capture local flavor with only slight exaggeration, being populated with anthropomorphic figures of several species in hues from around the color wheel. Likely a stand-in for the South Korea–born author, Su is pink-skinned, dark-haired, and freckled. Comments at the end about each stop don’t mention restrooms for humans but do identify which are “dog-friendly.”
A hilarious romp through the Big Apple. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780966438857
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tra Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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
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
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