This one should fly off the shelf frequently and will be eminently useful in author-visit prep.
The latest pun-filled poultry parody from the Auchs (Beauty and the Beaks, 2007, etc.) explores the travails and triumphs of a hen who strives to be a published writer.
Henrietta Fowler loves to read, use the library and write her own stories. When she sees a poster advertising a children’s-book festival with authors who are not chickens but people, she hatches an idea to write a new story about her young life and the concerns she has about leaving her cozy shell to go to "chickergarten." Pretending to be a poultry farmer, she submits her manuscript to five different publishers and is thrilled when all wish to publish her work. She chooses Holiday House “because they sounded like friendly people” who won’t mind when they learn that she is a chicken. A starred review in The Corn Book lands an invitation to the book festival, which she “egg-cepts” only to find that when she arrives, her fowl persona is unwelcome. Recognized by her friend and local librarian, Henrietta is then allowed to “scratch her autograph” for her newest fans. The numerous references to the writing and publishing process for authors coupled with the double-entendre wordplay and vivid digitally created illustrations are an imaginative way to enlighten children while simultaneously giving adults an appreciative chuckle.
This one should fly off the shelf frequently and will be eminently useful in author-visit prep. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3201-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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