An unlikely duo in an unbelievable story that doesn’t quite feel well-constructed in the end.
An unpredictable tale of a surprising friendship.
Mr. Biddles, a feline inventor, builds various patented machines. His orderly if lonely world seems just right until an unexpected visitor, Hobson the lobster, appears on his doorstep. What begins as an assistantship soon becomes a friendship. When Hobson becomes homesick, Mr. Biddles designs the Super Lobster Sightseeing Sidecar for them to travel to see Hobson’s family. However, this quirky friendship story poses several unanswered questions. Hobson’s initial appearance, his intermittent need for an aquatic environment, and his sudden facility at invention complicate believability. Furthermore, a surfeit of inventions in the book reveals a missed opportunity. Just one detailed invention might have more tightly fastened the nuts and bolts of this unlikely friendship. Sophisticated vocabulary seems at times uncharacteristic: “tricked-out tank” and “cranked on the catnip diffuser.” Imaginative endpapers hint at distinctive mixed-media illustrations. One spread displays various inventions, sketches, and materials on a cluttered desk filled with details perfect for observant young readers. These details sometimes make it difficult to locate the text, printed on collaged-in scraps of lined paper, though. Some illustrations fall short: when Mr. Biddles extends a magnet toward his mailbox, the door remains closed, prompting readers to wonder whether his inventions work and whether he can indeed help his friend in need.
An unlikely duo in an unbelievable story that doesn’t quite feel well-constructed in the end. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-244114-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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
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