Will make even the crankiest reader feel that thing that’s not cranky. (Happy!)
Even a cranky chicken can have a good time with a friend.
Chicken is cranky. She has cranky feet, a cranky beak, and a cranky unibrow, a dour, horizontal red line half-concealing her cranky eyes. What is she to do when a cheerful, zippy worm insists on being her BFF? Speedy the worm is anything but cranky—even their eyebrows are cheerful. (Speedy, who volunteers to be Chicken’s “wing man” or “wing woman,” doesn’t seem picky about gender.) The worm is adamant that the two should learn how to handle friendship together. Over the course of five chapters, the pair become best buds. Speedy never insists that Chicken change, or even that the crankiness means something bad. In fact, the worm even takes crankiness lessons so the two can share some crank together. When expressive hugger Speedy dons their cranky pants and mimics Chicken’s flat, irritable unibrow, it’s clear the two are made for each other; Speedy makes Chicken feel “that thing when you’re not cranky,” supplying “Happy?” to Chicken with enthusiasm. Delightful, simply illustrated panels are packed with expressive motion and silliness. Speech (set in a faux handwritten type) sometimes overflows speech bubbles in a way that feels more accidental than stylized, and on one occasion low color contrasts make some difficult to trace to the speaker. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Will make even the crankiest reader feel that thing that’s not cranky. (Happy!) (Graphic early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6988-4
Page Count: 116
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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