A hilariously preposterous situation that will delight comics newbies.
Dog and Pony return for a second act; Dog quickly gets in a pickle.
Pony wraps a scarf around Dog and grabs an umbrella, and the two of them set out for a walk as snow begins to fall. Then Dog sees a tree and, with some help from Pony, climbs to the lowest limb. Dog’s pride (“Look at me! I did it!”) is deflated by the difficulty of descending. The scarf becomes a rescue rope, but Dog is inadvertently boomeranged up to an even higher branch. Pony suggests using the umbrella to float back down, but the wind catches it and lifts Dog to the treetop. Pony climbs up after Dog but slips; Dog pulls Pony to safety. Now they’re both stuck in the tree! Dog’s solution? They should live here. Pony objects reasonably. While Pony frets, Dog notices that the snowpack has reached the tree’s level. They slide away happily, but has Dog learned a lesson? Of course not! The animals are anthropomorphized in terms of behavior but not in shape; the simple forms (tree, umbrella) stand out against a flat background, and the typeface is large. The text is simple enough for newcomers to graphic fiction, but the interplay between impulsive Dog and cautious Pony will have them chuckling. The book begins with a helpful guide to reading a graphic work that explains speech and thought bubbles, panels, and the order in which to follow them.
A hilariously preposterous situation that will delight comics newbies. (Graphic early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781665939157
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too many bugs, figuratively.
Lucy, “the youngest member of a family of fireflies,” must overcome an irrational, moon-induced anxiety in order to leave her family tree trunk and glow.
The first six pages pull readers into a lush, beautiful world of nighttime: “When the sun has set, silence falls over the Big Forest, and all of the nighttime animals wake up.” Mixed media provide an enchanting forest background, with stylized flora and fauna eventually illuminated by a large, benign moon, because the night “doesn’t like to catch them by surprise.” Turning the page catches readers by surprise, though: the family of fireflies is decidedly comical and silly-looking. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!’ ” It’s an acceptable change, but more unevenness follows. Lucy’s excitement about finally joining the other bugs turns to “sobbing” two nights in a row. Instead of directly linking her behavior to understandable reactions of children to newness, the text undermines itself by making Lucy’s parents’ sweet reassurances impotent and using the grandmother’s scientific explanation of moonlight as an unnecessary metaphor. Further detracting from the story, the text becomes ever denser and more complex over the book’s short span.
Too many bugs, figuratively. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-84-16147-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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