The effervescent Froggy is up to usual tricks in his eighth appearance (Froggy Plays Soccer, 1999, etc.). After a hard day of play, he may be “too pooped to pop.” But coming wide awake at the magic words “It's time for bed!,” he runs his patient mother through a string of delaying tactics, from a snack to a search for a “lost” toy. Each activity, of course, is accompanied by Froggy’s classic sound effects: lots of “flop, flop, flop[s],” with an occasional “zwoop” and a “glug, glug, glug” as well. Remkiewicz (Rabbit’s Pajama Party, 1999, etc.) depicts the tug-of-war in broadly drawn cartoon scenes, many of which feature mother pointing one way as the pajama-clad Froggy hops another—but it's all plainly more friendly ritual than battle. Mother at last sits down to read a bedtime story and, naturally, falls asleep, “snoring like a horse.” Froggy gives her a good-night nuzzle and drifts off. It's a jolly take on a theme as evergreen as the characters, though unlike Peggy Rathmann’s 10 Minutes Till Bedtime (1998), it may give Froggy’s younger fans some new bedtime maneuvers. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: May 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-670-88860-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 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
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BOOK REVIEW
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