by Meredith Hooper & illustrated by Allan Curless & Mark Burgess ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2000
This lighthearted addition to books about art for children combines art appreciation with a twist. Once a year when the museum is empty, dogs in the paintings have their special night out. They romp around the museum and, just at midnight, jump back into their frames. This year, partygoers had food and fizzy drinks in the gallery and the dogs enjoyed the leftovers. When the revelry was over, four dogs jumped into the wrong pictures. A young girl points out the mistake and everyone is astounded. People line up all year to see the unexplainable. A year passes until the next dog’s night out when, dissatisfied with their new surroundings, the dogs move back to their right places. Hooper’s (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) text is fast and funny, filled with descriptive phrases matched well by the illustrations. Curless, a London political cartoonist, did the initial drawings, but died before he could complete the illustrations; Burgess finished the work in his style. All the dogs pictured are reproduced from paintings in the collection of the National Gallery in London. A picture index of the featured paintings is a useful addition. Text and illustrations combine to make an amusing read and one that will compliment other more serious works about art for children. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7613-1824-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2000
Share your opinion of this book
More by Meredith Hooper
BOOK REVIEW
by Meredith Hooper & illustrated by Bee Willey
BOOK REVIEW
by Meredith Hooper & illustrated by Stephen Biesty
BOOK REVIEW
by Meredith Hooper & illustrated by Stephen Biesty
by Doreen Cronin & illustrated by Harry Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2005
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Doreen Cronin
BOOK REVIEW
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin
BOOK REVIEW
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Brian Cronin
BOOK REVIEW
by Doreen Cronin ; illustrated by Betsy Lewin
by Craig Smith ; illustrated by Katz Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2010
Hee haw.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
75
Our Verdict
GET IT
IndieBound Bestseller
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Craig Smith
BOOK REVIEW
by Craig Smith ; illustrated by Katz Cowley
BOOK REVIEW
by Doug MacLeod ; illustrated by Craig Smith
BOOK REVIEW
by Adam Osterweil and illustrated by Craig Smith
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.