A slight story that’s more useful than it is satisfying
With a loud “Eek!” an ostrich named Bird hides its head in the sand at every “peep.”
Elephant encourages ostrich to “Peek, Bird!” The originator of the “peep” turns out to be only the friendly Ape. This simple scenario is repeated when Sloth peeps, but when it’s a mouse that peeps, Elephant is the one crying, “EEEEEEK!” Now it’s Bird’s turn to encourage Elephant to “peek,” before all the animals play a game of hide-and-seek. In companion title Stop, Fox! the action focuses on the talkative Fox, who bothers Bird, Ape, and Cub (a bear) with incessant chatter. But Fox’s talking puts Sloth to sleep. The uncluttered layout in both titles is a plus, but the artwork is otherwise undistinguished. The simply rendered animals have a generic look that nevertheless may result in confusion. Ape, for instance, has a tail even though apes are tailless, and masked Sloth may well easily be initially mistaken for a raccoon. Bird has an ostrich’s characteristically luxuriant lashlike fringe at the eyes and is the only animal gendered female in the publisher copy (no characters are gendered in the text). The sentences are brief and repetitive, but the text’s brevity means that words may not be repeated frequently enough to be absorbed by the youngest readers. Hide and Peek uses just 17 words with three basic sentence patterns. The 30-word story in Stop, Fox! is more fully developed, with sentences and phrases repeated more frequently.
A slight story that’s more useful than it is satisfying . (Early reader. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8075-7208-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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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