We like these butts, and we cannot lie!
Bum’s the word!
This humorous title delivers just what it promises: fauna fawning over their own rumps, no more and no less. Though scatological jokes would be an obvious extension of the theme, and scenes of creatures sitting down might be expected, Saito resists such content and mostly depicts the animals against white backgrounds, their backsides facing readers. The accompanying first-person text offers proud self-praise of the speakers’ posteriors. At the very beginning, however, a hippo’s head, rather than its bottom, peeks onto the recto facing a small rabbit, viewed from the rear, on the verso. The text above the rabbit boasts, “My bottom is such a round bottom—and so cute, don’t you think?” The hippo replies, “I have a round bottom too! So round—and so-o-o big!” A page turn reveals that big bottom, and on the facing page an elephant looks down from the recto’s upper-right corner to declare, “My bottom’s even bigger! So much bigger!” The page turn reveals that yes, indeed, it is. Next come a tiger’s, zebra’s, and okapi’s striped bums, then other colorful bottoms. Monkeys and baboons, shown front- and back-facing declare, “Our bottoms are the same color as our faces!” The culminating spreads show a lineup of every bottom from the prior pages. In Saito’s delicate renderings, each bottom is distinct and, yes, beautiful.
We like these butts, and we cannot lie! (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77164-710-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greystone Kids
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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
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