It’s a consciously silly pretense, but discussion possibilities abound, and there’s no question it’s funny.
After being excluded, a polar bear gets her turn to shine.
Ursula (the polar bear) and Ricardo (a dark-haired white man with a mustache and soul patch) are in a public pool practicing their routine for an upcoming water-ballet competition. They twirl, splash, and leap with precision. But one day, the pool management decides that bears are no longer welcome. It should be noted that a menagerie of animals is in the water at all times, but bears are suddenly too hairy. Ursula believes that dressing up like a rabbit will solve the problem, but Ricardo has already found a new partner: Hortense the giraffe. Ursula is dejected. She slinks to the local pond to practice water ballet by herself. There, she meets a new group (some bears but other animals as well), and they decide to storm the competition. Ricardo and Hortense win first place, but the ursine group captures the hearts of the crowd, and a more important victory is won. The pool becomes a welcome place for everyone again. This is certainly a creative spin on inclusivity—an issue never before approached through agile polar-bear paw positions or the graceful lifting of camels in the air. Starin’s anthropomorphized cats, chickens, crocs, and more (along with amusing asides in the background) steal the show.
It’s a consciously silly pretense, but discussion possibilities abound, and there’s no question it’s funny. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30098-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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
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