This picture book and its lyrical text will make readers see fishes in unexpected places.
A short rhyming tale merges nature and debris to create art from remains of rainy days.
When the day turns gray and rain starts to fall, “that’s when rain fish come out and play.” From found materials (fallen leaves and feathers and items clearly plucked from the recycling bucket and waste stream), images of fishes are created and depicted at play in the flowing gutters. Through Ehlert’s distinctive collage illustrations and playful text, readers follow the life cycle of rain fishes and are encouraged to wonder where these fishes will go next. The book invites children to look closely at the waste they discard, prompting them to consider how orange peels, ticket stubs, cardboard, bottle caps, cans, and other garbage make their way to the stream—both the waste stream and Ehlert’s fanciful rain-fed stream—and the role of humans in their creation. The collage illustrations of found materials are vivid, although they need to be seen from a distance for readers to truly appreciate them and see the rain fishes, making this ideal for storytime or classroom use. A list of images of discards and debris that were used for the illustrations is appended and should be useful for craft activities after a read-aloud of the book.
This picture book and its lyrical text will make readers see fishes in unexpected places. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6152-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
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
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