Fans will eat up this sweet treat.
Norma, Belly, Gramps, and Little Bee are at it again!
Brown squirrels Norma and Belly are dismayed to discover that a fortune cookie factory has just been built on top of their acorn stash. As consolation, they sneak a stray plastic-wrapped cookie back to their burrow, where they marvel at the paper fortune inside the cookie. Conferring with literate squirrels Little Bee and Gramps, they learn that “people find a fortune in a cookie and believe whatever it says.” And thus, their newest food-finding caper is born: They will infiltrate the cookie factory, insert all-new fortunes that influence humans to give their cookies to squirrels, and reap the rewards! Of course, not everything goes to plan, and the group has to dodge the factory’s burned-out fortune writer and contend with cookie consumers’ disregard of the fortunes. But readers shouldn’t worry—the squirrels always manage to get their desired snacks in the end, and this is no exception. While this fourth episode involves slightly less peril than previous volumes, readers will be no less invested in the squirrels’ newest quest. Song’s charming dialogue is filled with humor and heart. Loose lines and soft watercolors in natural colors continue to provide a calmer—but no less silly—alternative to louder graphic novels for the same audience.
Fans will eat up this sweet treat. (Graphic fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9780593479759
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader!
Fun with friends makes for a great day.
Norbit, a salmon-colored worm with a pink kerchief, joyfully greets the day and everyone he encounters. “Hello, friends! It’s time for fun with the sun! Let’s play!” He and his menagerie of forest pals—including the sun, who grows limbs and descends from the sky—exuberantly engage in various forms of physical activity such as jumping, going down a slide, spinning around, and watching the clouds go by. Young readers will readily relate, as these are games that most children are familiar with. As day turns to night, Norbit says farewell to Sun and welcomes Moon with an invitation to continue the fun. Watkins has created a vivid world of movement and merriment. Her illustrations feature bright bursts of color that match the energy of the text, with most sentences ending in an exclamation point. The author/illustrator incorporates many elements that make for an ideal early-reading experience (despite the use of a contraction or two): art free from clutter, text consisting of words with only one or two syllables, and repetition and recurring bits, such as a continued game of hide-and-seek with Sun. Inspired by never-before-seen sketches from the Dr. Seuss Collection archives at the University of California San Diego, this is the first title for Seuss Studios, a new imprint for original stories from “emerging authors and illustrators” who “honor Seuss’s hallmark spirit of creativity and imagination.”
Say hello to a relatable and rewarding early reader! (author's note) (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593646212
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Seuss Studios
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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
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