Preschool sous-chefs, kindergarten accountants, and everyone in between will find commonality in their chuckling reactions...
Eight years after Duck’s persistent and unwelcome turnip obsession in A Birthday for Cow (2008), it’s now Pig’s turn to be the odd animal out.
Mouse, Cow, and Pig are making a supersized pot of soup. An exuberant counting exercise ensues as a growing assortment of vegetables gets tossed in—one onion, two cabbages—and three umbrellas! The bewildered but ever polite Mouse and Cow ask, “Is that wise, Pig?” Other veggies join the bubbling broth, but Pig’s contribution is six galoshes. The running refrain of “Is that wise, Pig?” reaches a crescendo when Pig blithely announces that 10 of his hungriest friends have been invited. With spoons in hand, the plethora of pool-hogging piggies party hearty in the soup-filled pot as Mouse and Cow come to appreciate the fortuitously available umbrellas and galoshes. Bowing to the inevitability of a menu change, Mouse orders pizza instead. Thomas’ trademark loud and zany illustrations obey no boundaries and bleed off the pages with raucous abandon. Deft digital tweaking shifts the friends’ expressions from anticipatory to chagrined amid the escalating chaos.
Preschool sous-chefs, kindergarten accountants, and everyone in between will find commonality in their chuckling reactions to this over-the-top tutorial for impromptu caterers. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4169-8582-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together.
A clueless duckling tries to make a new friend.
He is confused by this peculiar-looking duck, who has a long tail, doesn’t waddle and likes to be alone. No matter how explicitly the creature denies he is a duck and announces that he is a cat, the duckling refuses to acknowledge the facts. When this creature expresses complete lack of interest in playing puddle stomp, the little ducking goes off and plays on his own. But the cat is not without remorse for rejecting an offered friendship. Of course it all ends happily, with the two new friends enjoying each other’s company. Bramsen employs brief sentences and the simplest of rhymes to tell this slight tale. The two heroes are meticulously drawn with endearing, expressive faces and body language, and their feathers and fur appear textured and touchable. Even the detailed tree bark and grass seem three-dimensional. There are single- and double-page spreads, panels surrounded by white space and circular and oval frames, all in a variety of eye-pleasing juxtapositions. While the initial appeal is solidly visual, young readers will get the gentle message that friendship is not something to take for granted but is to be embraced with open arms—or paws and webbed feet.
A sweet, tender and charming experience to read aloud or together. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86990-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
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