No need to visit a museum to find an exhibit of best friendship; see it on display right here.
The mouse BFFs are back.
After trekking a mountain in Cornbread & Poppy (2022) and riding roller coasters in Cornbread & Poppy at the Carnival (2022), the murine buddies engage in more low-key pursuits. Cornbread is invited to the Founder’s Gala at the Moonville Museum, where a “surprise new exhibit will be revealed.” Guess who’s his plus-one? When Cornbread arrives at Poppy’s, she explains she’s uninterested, and only when Cornbread reluctantly promises outdoorsy Poppy he’ll go camping with her does she relent. Cornbread guides underwhelmed Poppy around. Then the new exhibit is unveiled: the personal effects of the museum’s founder, including her never-before-seen portrait. Everyone notices Poppy’s resemblance to the portrait! Town records are consulted! Poppy’s relationship to the founder’s family is asserted! Sadly, Cornbread’s ignored, his tears causing him to collide with a priceless exhibit. In the end, Poppy makes things right for Cornbread with the donation of a family heirloom. The friends’ charming camaraderie shines in this sweet, gently humorous early reader, but some plot details probably won’t resonate with readers if they’ve never visited a museum. The expression founder’s gala and the details of Poppy’s somewhat complicated ancestry may go over younger audiences’ heads. However, Cordell’s witty, loose pen-and-ink–and-watercolor illustrations are adorable and capture the protagonists’ expressiveness perfectly.
No need to visit a museum to find an exhibit of best friendship; see it on display right here. (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316508476
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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