Davol (The Loudest, Fastest, Best Drummer in Kansas, 2000, etc.) spins an original pourquoi tale of when the world was young and butterflies were dressed in dull colors, earth-tones of browns and grays and washed-out pinks and purples. The butterflies were chatty, noisy creatures that couldn’t stop commenting on everything they saw and they were the loudest in a land of loud animals. A sudden thunderstorm and bolt of lighting splits the butterflies’ tree in half, stunning them into silence. In the silent aftermath of the storm, as the sun warmed their wings, the butterflies began to glow with color, “gold of the sun, the blue of the sky, and all the colors of the rainbow.” In awe, they stopped shouting at each other and flew away on silent wings, and the rest of the animals quieted down, too. While the story doesn’t soar, it’s the breathtaking art that sets this apart. Roth’s (Mama Provi and the Pot of Rice, 1997, etc.) exquisitely detailed, naturalistic watercolor paintings of wildflowers, sunflowers, poppies, allium, tiger lilies, and daisies shimmer on the page. Monkeys swing over the top of double-paged spreads as hyenas, elephants, giraffes, and zebras stroll across the bottom. A lovely appeal for quiet contemplation of nature’s gifts. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-531-30322-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
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BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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