Madcap text and droll illustrations make this “the best party ever!”—as Edmund’s brother exclaims.
Elephants and memory are linked proverbially, but poor Edmund totally forgets everything his mother tells him to buy for his younger brother’s birthday party.
He complains to his mom that he is forgetful, so she teaches him a song that Edmund sings throughout the book: “Elephants always remember, / Elephants don’t get it wrong. / Elephants always remember, / As long as they sing this song!” She also hands him a shopping list: balloons, party hats, confetti, wrapped gift, cake, paper plates, and napkins. At the bottom is the stern instruction “Don’t forget to fetch Aunt Myrtle!” Naturally, Edmund immediately leaves the list behind, and Colin, a tiny cricket in a long overcoat who appears in every spread, tries to help him. Colin has a great memory, but every time the insect calls out the item Edmund is supposed to buy, Edmund doesn’t hear Colin properly and the fun begins. His yellow wagon becomes crowded with all kinds of animals cavorting in funny clothes. Instead of “twenty pointy party hats,” for instance, Edmund finds “seven sassy dancing cats!” Kids will enjoy Edmund’s mistakes, realized in zany cartoons full of hilarious details. Edmund’s mom is dismayed (not least because it turns out she’s also forgotten something important) but his little brother is delighted. The amusing text is meant to be read aloud, although the detailed illustrations will best be enjoyed by individual children or small groups. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.25-by-20.88-inch double-page spreads viewed at 27% of actual size.)
Madcap text and droll illustrations make this “the best party ever!”—as Edmund’s brother exclaims. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-913337-39-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scribblers/Sterling
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 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
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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