Be sure to snuggle up to “the stuffed kind” of bears and share this book with future Scaredy Squirrel series fans.
A handy story for little adventurers curious about the outdoor world.
In this British import, Robinson breaks the wall between book and audience to advise readers about the precautions needed when exploring country life. Laid out as a blend of a field journal and pictorial narrative, the story presents the young main character, ready for an adventurous walk in the woods. As the backpack-toting, balaclava- and plaid-jacket–clad child strides confidently into the forest, the text suggests to readers, “You’d better make sure you know your bears.” A turn of the page reveals field-note illustrations, scientific names, and descriptions of black and brown bears. When the protagonist finally encounters not one, but two bears, readers will realize that it takes more than a guidebook to face your fears—and not everything is as dangerous as it might seem. With autumnal colors, Roberts guides readers’ eyes toward detailed and minimalistic illustrations of flora, fauna, and fungi characteristic of the deep woods. The freckle-faced child has dark skin and is of indeterminate gender. Graph-paper backgrounds, different fonts, and the silliness of the main character make this a quirky, appealing title.
Be sure to snuggle up to “the stuffed kind” of bears and share this book with future Scaredy Squirrel series fans. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68119-026-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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