MISTER WHISTLER

Name: MISTER WHISTLER
Author: Margaret Mahy
ISBN: 978-1-877467-91-2

by Margaret Mahy ; illustrated by Gavin Bishop ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2013

This romp fits in beautifully with Mahy’s other wacky picture books; pair it with Song and Dance Man for a lively read-aloud.

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This sprightly, whimsical tale will induce plenty of giggles and start toes to tapping.

Mister Whistler is dreaming of singing and dancing when a phone call from his great-aunt awakens him; she needs him to come over right away. As he puts on each article of clothing, his feet keep dancing. They dance all the way to the train station, where he buys a ticket. But when he needs it, he can’t find it, so he proceeds to take off each item of clothing, all the way down to his underwear, trying to find his ticket. But all the while he’s disrobing and dancing, he’s clenching the ticket in his teeth! Other passengers toss coins in his discarded hat. He dons his clothes and boards the train only to lose the ticket again—but he buys one with the money he made. The artwork perfectly plays out the capriciousness of the comic story. Bishop clearly had fun designing the clothes: polka-dot boxers, blue checked trousers, a harlequin waistcoat (also the pattern on the endpapers) and big green coat with a fur collar. Mahy’s inimitable sense of whimsy informs the plot, and her rock-solid sense of rhythm invests her prose with musicality: “He felt in his big coat pockets. Right? No! Left? No! Top left? Ah! Good!”

This romp fits in beautifully with Mahy’s other wacky picture books; pair it with Song and Dance Man for a lively read-aloud. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: April 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-877467-91-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Gecko Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
BOOM, BABY, BOOM BOOM!
by Margaret Mahy ; illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREEN BATH
by Margaret Mahy ; illustrated by Steven Kellogg

- BOOK REVIEW
MAN FROM THE LAND OF FANDANGO
by Margaret Mahy & illustrated by Polly Dunbar

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WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES, MR. BROWN?

by Justin Rhodes ; illustrated by Heather Dickinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2023

Pedestrian.

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Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.

Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 14, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals

Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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TOYS GALORE

by Peter Stein ; illustrated by Bob Staake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children...

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A fizzy yet revealing romp through the toy world.

Though of standard picture-book size, Stein and illustrator Staake’s latest collaboration (Bugs Galore, 2012, etc.) presents a sweeping compendium of diversions for the young. From fairies and gnomes, race cars and jacks, tin cans and socks, to pots ’n’ pans and a cardboard box, Stein combs the toy kingdom for equally thrilling sources of fun. These light, tightly rhymed quatrains focus nicely on the functions characterizing various objects, such as “Floaty, bubbly, / while-you-wash toys” or “Sharing-secrets- / with-tin-cans toys,” rather than flatly stating their names. Such ambiguity at once offers Staake free artistic rein to depict copious items capable of performing those tasks and provides pre-readers ample freedom to draw from the experiences of their own toy chests as they scan Staake’s vibrant spreads brimming with chunky, digitally rendered objects and children at play. The sense of community and sharing suggested by most of the spreads contributes well to Stein’s ultimate theme, which he frames by asking: “But which toy is / the best toy ever? / The one most fun? / Most cool and clever?” Faced with three concluding pages filled with all sorts of indoor and outside toys to choose from, youngsters may be shocked to learn, on turning to the final spread, that the greatest one of all—“a toy SENSATION!”—proves to be “[y]our very own / imagination.”

Clever verse coupled with bold primary-colored images is sure to attract and hone the attention of fun-seeking children everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)