Lovely in both message and pictures.
A sweet invitation to link the two meanings of the titular word.
“In this book you’ll find / Many kinds of things,” McGeachin writes. “But kind is more than type / Kind is how to care / For creatures that you meet / And places that we share.” The following verses urge readers to regard wildlife with respect. Accompanying the text are galleries of beautifully rendered butterflies (“those who flutter”), spiders (“those who weave”), and other types of related wildlife, from fish to antelopes. Though including orangutans and gibbons among “those with tails” (an accompanying spread displays 19 species of primate) requires some poetic license, every animal on display throughout is both easily recognizable and accurately labeled. Following an invitation to treat our entire planet with kindness, the author closes with a reminder: “We’re part of nature too / Be kind to other people… / And keep some kind for you.” Picture books about kindness abound, but as they tend to focus exclusively on being kind to other people, the even more inclusive slant here offers a salutary broadening of perspective. In the illustrations, a reflective-looking, tan-skinned child in a woodsy setting stands in for young observers of nature’s small wonders. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Lovely in both message and pictures. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781684645565
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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
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
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