Let’s hear it for all the little guys: Who doesn’t dream about getting the upper hand once in a while?
A diminutive, possumlike creature outsmarts monsters, if inadvertently.
It snows and the river freezes over. Little Mo’s parents, going out to forage, caution him to remain in their cave and not to tread on the ice. But a bored and lonely Little Mo ventures outside anyway and builds snow friends. He hides when enormous, dinosaurlike monsters emerge and settle into the cave. Mustering some courage, Little Mo explains that they must leave. The biggest monster chases Little Mo, threatening to devour him—but, running across the frozen river, the heavy creature falls in. While the other monsters attempt to rescue their pal, Little Mo easily skims across the ice and ascends a snowy hill. He slips and rolls…and rolls, eventually turning into a gigantic snowball. This behemoth panics the monsters, who flee. The snowball splits and opens just as Little Mo’s parents return, bearing food. He assures them that he didn’t get bored while they were gone, and the gigantic footprints Dad sees belong to visitors he chased off. This cute, if unoriginal, U.K. import will appeal to all readers who fantasize that, though they’re small, they can handily vanquish larger foes; kids will root for Little Mo all the way. The illustrations are lively, and the monsters aren’t too scary.
Let’s hear it for all the little guys: Who doesn’t dream about getting the upper hand once in a while? (note on prehistoric animals and their evolution) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780500653449
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 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
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