Accurately rendered origami animals and other models made from an array of brilliantly patterned papers parade across a young folder’s table and around a thematic set of short, pithy poems: “Folding a snake? / Need advice? / Be precissssssse.” Sometimes the creatures voice the lines, as when a rabbit complains that it can’t hear because its ears are too sharply creased. More often it’s the child, greeting a newly-made rooster in the morning, crafting tulips to go with a flock of pleated peacocks, separating rabbits and foxes (“I don’t want trouble”), fussing over an ostrich damaged by a cat of the furry sort, folding boats for a bath-time excursion and finally snuggling into bed with a rustling cricket. There are no step diagrams, so this engrossing collaboration is more a motivator than a teaching resource—but Stringer supplies a list of classic titles for beginners at the end, and (librarians: be warned!) the square, brightly colored endpapers make tempting, oh so tempting starter sheets. (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-15-202501-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
A dozen familiar dinosaurs introduce themselves in verse in this uninspired, if colorful, new animal gallery from the authors of Commotion in the Ocean (2000). Smiling, usually toothily, and sporting an array of diamonds, lightning bolts, spikes and tiger stripes, the garishly colored dinosaurs make an eye-catching show, but their comments seldom measure up to their appearance: “I’m a swimming reptile, / I dive down in the sea. / And when I spot a yummy squid, / I eat it up with glee!” (“Ichthyosaurus”) Next to the likes of Kevin Crotty’s Dinosongs (2000), illustrated by Kurt Vargo, or Jack Prelutsky’s classic Tyrannosaurus Was A Beast (1988), illustrated by Arnold Lobel, there’s not much here to roar about. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58925-044-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
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