This fish tale falls flat.
Fishsitting a zombie is hard enough…a vampire kitten can make it nigh impossible.
Tom and Pradeep share the care of zombie goldfish Frankie, who has hypnotic eyes. When they leave Frankie in the care of Sami, Pradeep’s little sister, they also leave a detailed list of instructions, with a special emphasis on keeping Frankie safe from Fang, Tom’s older brother’s vampire kitten. Sami takes her job seriously, but vampire kittens are extremely sneaky. Fang catches Frankie and uses the power of “kitty cuteness” to mesmerize Sami into kittysitting as well as fishsitting. When the “games” Fang and Frankie dream up to play threaten to squash, splash, or zombify each other, Sami forces the dueling duo to play her game…which is highly embarrassing to both. U.K. author O’Hara’s first fish tale for a younger audience based on her series of illustrated chapter books will be beneath the notice of Frankie’s existing fans and doesn’t offer more than a retread of Tom & Jerry to hook newbies. It’s unclear why embarrassing the duo makes them “get along” (for a moment), but the boys reward Sami for doing a good job. Jagucki’s rounded, bright cartoon illustrations are active, attractive, and fun; but they don’t much enliven the humdrum story.
This fish tale falls flat. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-06523-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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