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BRENDA IS A SHEEP

Name: BRENDA IS A SHEEP
Author: Morag Hood
ISBN: 978-0-593-17380-0

by Morag Hood ; illustrated by Morag Hood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 17, 2020

For young readers with a taste for the ominous.

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Naïve sheep gleefully dress in a wolf’s clothing.

“Brenda is a sheep,” this tale insists. In Hood’s recognizable style, cheerfully straightforward text clashes sharply with the story told through the illustrations. Brenda, after all, is clearly a wolf, with her sharp teeth and gray coat, bright-orange “nice woolly sweater” notwithstanding. She doesn’t seem to enjoy the company of sheep, either, looking frustrated at the constant “baa”-ing around her (she is almost buried in iterations of “BAA” that cover 2/3 of the page) and disgusted by grass; her preferred games are tag and archery. Tension grows as Brenda starts preparing for a feast, making a huge vat of mint sauce (readers might need an explanation that this is a common condiment for lamb dishes). But Brenda’s plans are foiled when the sheep, all now dressed similarly in orange sweaters made from their own wool, plan a banquet of their own for their beloved friend: delicacies shaped from grass. It seems that the wolf’s carnivorous instincts have been curbed, for now. The humor derives from the tension between the innocent story being read aloud and the more sinister elements left unspoken, though the text’s insistence that Brenda is a sheep might lead to some awkward and unsatisfying conversations about identity and embodiment. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.1-by-20.2-inch double-page spreads viewed at 17.7% of actual size.)

For young readers with a taste for the ominous. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-593-17380-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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SOPHIE JOHNSON, UNICORN EXPERT, IS A SPORTS SUPERSTAR
by Morag Hood ; illustrated by Ella Okstad

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SOPHIE JOHNSON, UNICORN EXPERT, IS A DETECTIVE GENIUS
by Morag Hood ; illustrated by Ella Okstad

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AALFRED AND AALBERT
by Morag Hood ; illustrated by Morag Hood

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

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With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)