In what seems like a new golden age of early readers, this just isn’t a standout.
Despite appealing pictures of mischievous bears, this story lacks teeth.
Bear cubs Pete and Gabby lament the end of camping season at Happy Time Campground and go to town in search of people and food. Bear-savvy readers may note a sign in Kirkland’s opening illustration reading, “Don’t Feed The Bears,” which suggests that Pete and Gabby have already encountered people who know not to interact with them. Nevertheless, in the ensuing brief chapters, the cubs are mystified by the townspeople’s fearful reactions on a soccer field, in an ice-cream shop and at the post office and fire station. It’s unclear whether the bears’ dialogue is understandable to the humans—especially when they respond, “PEOPLE!” to the humans’ cries of “BEARS!” Ultimately, Pete and Gabby occupy an odd space of quasi-anthropomorphism: They are bearlike in their presumed threat to people, and yet they can stuff mailboxes, wave to passersby and revel in slapstick mishaps in town. Finally, they simply ride back to the forest atop a fire truck after their “friend” the ranger comes to fetch them—no tranquilizer guns required.
In what seems like a new golden age of early readers, this just isn’t a standout. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8075-0595-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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