More character study than story.
Gwendolyn Grace, an anthropomorphic alligator, is having a hard time adjusting to being a big sister.
From offstage, an adult voice tells Gwendolyn Grace to “[s]top making so much noise,” because the baby is sleeping. The frontmatter pages have already established her as a boisterous, noisy girl, and on subsequent spreads, she enacts repeated, noisy scenarios—ostensibly to clarify whether certain activities fall under the admonition to be quiet. Of course, all of her antics do cross the line into “so much noise,” and page turns consistently deliver the offstage parent’s disapproval. A baby’s cries are never apparent, though, and when the exasperated mama finally sighs and calls Gwendolyn Grace to her, there is no dramatic scolding or change. Instead, the big sister whispers and asks if they can play when the baby is done sleeping, and Mama says yes while the baby slumbers on. Not even Gwendolyn Grace’s exuberant “Yay!” rouses the baby, and after so much high-spirited, onomatopoeic text and art, the culmination of the story lacks satisfying resolution. Gwendolyn Grace simply goes on being noisy, and the baby keeps sleeping. Hannigan’s brightly colored artwork has a certain expressive vitality, but while the illustrations do provide support for characterization (Gwendolyn Grace is one spunky alligator girl in her pink skirt), they do little to enhance the sparse narrative.
More character study than story. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-234519-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end.
Something is preventing Owl from falling asleep.
Owl leans back against his white pillow and headboard. “Squeek!” says something underneath the bed. Owl’s never heard that sound before, so he fastens his pink bathrobe and answers the front door. Nobody. It must be the wind; back to bed. Bidding himself goodnight, he climbs into bed—and hears the noise again. Time after time, he pops out of bed seeking the squeaker. Is it in the cupboard? He empties the shelves. Under the floor? He pulls up his floorboards. As Owl’s actions ratchet up—he destroys the roof and smashes the walls, all in search of the squeak—so does his anxiety. Not until he hunkers down in bed under the night sky (his bed is now outdoors, because the house’s roof and walls are gone), frantically clutching his pillow, does he see what readers have seen all along: a small, gray mouse. In simple illustrations with black outlines, textured coloring, and foreshortened perspective, Pizzoli plays mischievously with mouse placement. Sometimes the mouse is behind Owl or just out of his sightline; other times, the mouse is on a solid, orange-colored page across the spread from Owl, which removes him from Owl’s scene in a rather postmodern manner. Is the mouse toying with Owl? Who knows?
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1275-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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