The small hero’s grit and happy ending guarantee another success for this popular author and illustrator duo.
Jonty Gentoo, a brave, determined zoo penguin, embarks on an epic journey.
When Jonty Gentoo hears about penguin colonies at the South Pole, he yearns to go there. Eventually he escapes, leaving his loving aunts (no parents are mentioned) and caring keepers in search of adventure. Unclear on the concept of a geographic pole (he’s initially confused when he encounters a flagpole, a barge pole, and a tent pole) and tired of walking, he jumps into the sea and delightedly swims through sparkling, food-filled waters. But when he emerges onto the ice, he finds no penguins, even after weeks pass. Bearded seals threaten to eat him, and the polar bear who saves him breaks the news: Jonty has traveled north. A tern accustomed to globe-spanning migration offers guidance, and “the bird in the sea and the bird in the air” travel south. Exhausted, Jonty lucks onto an Antarctic expedition ship and is taken aboard. On land he sees emperor and Adélie penguins and finally a “heartwarming huddle of gorgeous gentoos.” The story is heartwarming, too, and the rhythms rock us through the miles of migration with reassuring and spot-on rhymes. Jonty and the bear are accurately depicted, though slightly anthropomorphized. Scheffler’s firmly outlined art gives humans (who vary in skin tone) flat profiles but depicts whales, swordfish, owl, seals, and more in beautiful color and detail.
The small hero’s grit and happy ending guarantee another success for this popular author and illustrator duo. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781546134206
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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