An ideal introduction to nature’s complexities, wrapped up in an unexpectedly poetic package.
In the snowy forest, a little fox is in turn the hunter and the hunted.
Opening on a young fox tucked safely inside his burrow, the second-person narration describes the fox’s day as he explores the snowy expanse, captures lunch, and surprises a wolverine, shifting the young fox from predator to prey. After a ferocious chase, the fox escapes and settles in to sleep, the narrator musing about the fox’s potential future as father to kits of his own. The tale unfolds in expressive free-form poetry. The short, evocative lines beautifully capture the dreamy stillness of the fox’s wandering, “lap[ping] tiny tongue-curls of icy cold water,” but deftly alternate with lines that burst forth with the urgency of the chase: “Little fox—you must go go go!” London’s fox is clearly wild, not a storybook animal, and Miyares doesn’t shy away from authenticity either, with the fox’s snacks shown realistically (though without gore). His painterly watercolors showcase the forest’s vastness and the rust-red fox, whose toothy gray shadow blazes against gleaming white snow. The fox exudes dignity and complexity, with the agile animal breaking the frame of an action-packed hunting page but also presenting as tiny and imperiled when pursued. While the story itself is a tad slight, words and art effectively convey the fox’s fluctuating role in the forest ecosystem.
An ideal introduction to nature’s complexities, wrapped up in an unexpectedly poetic package. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8814-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
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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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