As silly (and sweet) as a basement full of cake, with a hint more substance.
Llama’s single-minded pursuit of delicious desserts reaches new frontiers.
This third installment in the series finds Llama obsessing over the “spectacular” doughnut with extra sprinkles he ate at his birthday party yesterday. If only he could eat it again! The “rational llama of science” sets out to do exactly that. But when his new time-travel pants take him further back in time than expected, Llama finds (and eats) a different birthday doughnut, unknowingly altering the space-time continuum for his younger self. Baby Llama’s sad, lonely birthday “Long, Long Ago” without sweets—or friends to share them with—offers sympathetic context for Llama’s present-day hoarding tendencies and distrust of strangers. Both are on full display after Baby Llama and a host of other creatures from the past and present follow Llama back to his “Today” and start to destroy his home—what if his secret cake cellar is next? But when he and Baby Llama rush to protect the desserts, Llama realizes what his younger self wants even more than sweets. Tight narrative pacing, well-timed instances of onomatopoeia, and expressive, cartoonish illustrations make this an engaging read-aloud. While the narrator seems to take a dark pleasure in describing the consequences of Llama’s inability to read instructions, follow rules, or predict the consequences of his own actions (“he would pay dearly for it”), the cautionary tale elements are tempered by a reassuringly positive outcome for all llamas involved. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
As silly (and sweet) as a basement full of cake, with a hint more substance. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-77676-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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