Clucky lays a rotten egg.
Will someone in the farmyard become a star when Howard the owl talent scout makes his visit?
The animals on the farm are all aflutter. “Howard is world famous for seeking near and far, / Discovering new talents and making them big stars.” No stranger to TV himself, he’s discovered a bunny magician and a roller-skating panda who plays the flute. In Clucky’s farmyard, Mona the goat is attempting to sing; George the horse is practicing his dancing; and Bert the turkey “is dressed up as old King Lear.” Even Clucky’s chicks practice their juggling with grapefruit. When Howard arrives in his limo, he steps out—only to trip on a stray grapefruit. Everyone wants to blame the chicks, who flee. Clucky takes the fall and says she was making juice. She cleans Howard up, then gives him an heirloom magnifying glass. Surprisingly, he decides he has found his star in Clucky, saying, “Today has been a special day, / my dear hen, now I know. / I’ve learned that it’s within our / hearts where all new talents grow.” Originally published in Spain, Pavón’s story is as weak on logic as Clucky is on any demonstrated talent. Carretero’s busy, often confusingly composed illustrations, full of goggle-eyed animals with strangely outsized noses, don’t help, nor does the forced verse in Brokenbrow’s translation.
Clucky lays a rotten egg. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-84-18302-02-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end.
Something is preventing Owl from falling asleep.
Owl leans back against his white pillow and headboard. “Squeek!” says something underneath the bed. Owl’s never heard that sound before, so he fastens his pink bathrobe and answers the front door. Nobody. It must be the wind; back to bed. Bidding himself goodnight, he climbs into bed—and hears the noise again. Time after time, he pops out of bed seeking the squeaker. Is it in the cupboard? He empties the shelves. Under the floor? He pulls up his floorboards. As Owl’s actions ratchet up—he destroys the roof and smashes the walls, all in search of the squeak—so does his anxiety. Not until he hunkers down in bed under the night sky (his bed is now outdoors, because the house’s roof and walls are gone), frantically clutching his pillow, does he see what readers have seen all along: a small, gray mouse. In simple illustrations with black outlines, textured coloring, and foreshortened perspective, Pizzoli plays mischievously with mouse placement. Sometimes the mouse is behind Owl or just out of his sightline; other times, the mouse is on a solid, orange-colored page across the spread from Owl, which removes him from Owl’s scene in a rather postmodern manner. Is the mouse toying with Owl? Who knows?
A funny tale about stress and an ever upping ante, with a comforting end. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1275-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat.
Dinos that love to move and groove get children counting from one to 10—and perhaps moving to the beat.
Beginning with a solo bop by a female dino (she has eyelashes, doncha know), the dinosaur dance party begins. Each turn of the page adds another dino and a change in the dance genre: waltz, country line dancing, disco, limbo, square dancing, hip-hop, and swing. As the party would be incomplete without the moonwalk, the T. Rex does the honors…and once they are beyond their initial panic at his appearance, the onlookers cheer wildly. The repeated refrain on each spread allows for audience participation, though it doesn’t easily trip off the tongue: “They hear a swish. / What’s this? / One more? / One more dino on the floor.” Some of the prehistoric beasts are easily identifiable—pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, triceratops—but others will be known only to the dino-obsessed; none are identified, other than T-Rex. Packed spreads filled with psychedelically colored dinos sporting blocks of color, stripes, or polka dots (and infectious looks of joy) make identification even more difficult, to say nothing of counting them. Indeed, this fails as a counting primer: there are extra animals (and sometimes a grumpy T-Rex) in the backgrounds, and the next dino to join the party pokes its head into the frame on the page before. Besides all that, most kids won’t get the dance references.
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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