A land-locked cow follows her dream—and finds lasting happiness—in Wheeler’s (Sixteen Cows, p. 348, etc.) humorous outing. In the opening spread, Moo stands before the fence that divides her grassy grazing land from the wheat field. “Moo watched the field of waving wheat, / and wished for ocean swells. / She sniffed the freshness of the grass, / but wished for ocean smells.” Not one to wait, Moo heads to the bay and boards a boat piloted by craggy cats. Goembel’s (The Night Iguana Left Home, 1999, etc.) finely wrought acrylic illustration brims with witty details, from the anthropomorphized crew drawing in a loaded fish net to the bristly captain, who wears an eye patch and hooked claw. He agrees to take Moo on in exchange for fresh milk. When a storm sends Moo overboard and she’s rescued by a pirate ship captained by Red Angus, her life takes an unexpected turn (“Red Angus gazed into her eyes. / His heart began to warm. / In Moo he’d found his dairy queen / and now he must reform”). The naturalistic accuracy of Goembel’s illustration adds to the humor of this most unusual situation, especially in the end, when a closing cameo zeroes in on Moo, Angus, and their calf Half-’n’-Half, enjoying ice-cream cones on the Jersey shore. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84219-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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