The silly scenario and pro–books-and-reading message accentuate the appeal.
A little boy asks, “Daddy, why do you always read me Mother Goose before bed?” The question prompts a zany tale from Daddy’s boyhood.
Young Daddy finds a live duck in the fridge. Then three in the bathroom. Then more! The unruly critters steal his pajamas, eat all the crackers and order out for pizza. Calling 1-800-DUCK-B-GONE for something to scare the ducks away—once, twice and thrice—Daddy receives delivery of two sheep (who are hairy, not scary), three dogs and, lastly, one purportedly “scary” herd of cows. In each case, the delivered animals merely add to the chaos—bonding with each other via television, card games and a wild party. Overhearing party chitchat, boy Daddy gets an idea. Maybe he doesn’t need to scare the animals off to get them to cooperate. He begins to read “The Old Woman in the Shoe” and immediately captivates his listeners. “Hey, Diddle Diddle” goes down just as well. Young Daddy thus finds a solution for that difficult transition for preschoolers, from full-bore activity to bedtime—one that comes in handy with his own child, years later. Mack’s digitally rendered, cartoonish pictures are characterized by grainy colors, soft-edged brown contour lines and occasional flowery motifs for textiles. Hmm, whatever did happen to all those animals, anyway? A visual joke on the last double-page spread supplies the laugh-out-loud payoff.
The silly scenario and pro–books-and-reading message accentuate the appeal. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4778-4776-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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