Excellent visual storytelling aligned with eloquent brevity.
A comical fruit bat addresses readers about its beloved cherries, not guessing they will soon disappear.
From the simple, funny cover to the final, wordless page, this book is a quirky gem. The art has the appearance of simple woodblock prints. The black-winged, gray-bodied bat has thin, pointy, white teeth that issue alternately from a pencil-thin smile or a grimace and little black eyes with thin, expressive, black eyebrows. Its first words, as it hangs upside-down against an avocado green background, are: “I AM BAT. I do not like mornings.” On the opposite page, against solid yellow, it smiles, its wings full of red orbs with green stems, and says, “I like CHERRIES.” It goes on to describe its love of cherries, and then, with a Dracula-like sweep of wings, it warns readers that no one should take its cherries. There follow several pages of humorous, fruit-bat bravado. Although there is no gender ascribed to Bat, many caregivers will feel an urge to read it in imitation of the legendary Bela Lugosi. As cherries disappear, readers see subtle evidence of which animals are taking them. Bat’s proclamation of eternal unhappiness is quickly reversed by a thief-engineered fruit replacement. Old and young alike will have to giggle at the bat’s show of speedy adaptability.
Excellent visual storytelling aligned with eloquent brevity. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6032-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
