An origin story—and alphabet practice and vocabulary stretcher—for Bad Kitty’s fans.
A look back at the Halloween that transformed a brave, daring, and energetic kitty into a scaredy-cat and then into the Bad Kitty readers know.
As with her other adventures, readers are in for several trips through the alphabet. The first lists the cat’s attributes before she became a scaredy-cat. The second lists the things she saw that scared her: Evil Ectoplasm, a Killer Kracken, a Putrid Pirate, a Toxic Tarantula. Each (except for Uncle Murray, who just needs to borrow some candy) is a costumed child with trick-or-treat bag or bucket in hand, though on the first run-through, they look all too real and menacing, sending poor Kitty to cower under the couch. Until, that is, one of them drops the candy. Huge eyes reveal how excited Kitty is at the haul, Apples to Zoo animal crackers, and at that moment, she decides to become a bad Kitty, besting and revealing each costumed child and stealing the candy: she Flattened Frankenstein, Mauled the Mummy, and Nullified the Neanderthal. Bruel’s illustrations, heavy on the blacks, purples, and oranges, do double duty, helping youngsters with the challenging vocabulary, though not all the pictures really show the actions (Harassing the Hag looks like either tickling or scratching, and both Gnawing on the Goblin and Injuring the Invisible Man involve biting).
An origin story—and alphabet practice and vocabulary stretcher—for Bad Kitty’s fans. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59643-978-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts.
Can knightly deeds bring together a feathered odd couple who are on opposite daily schedules?
Having won over a dragon (and millions of fans) in the Caldecott Honor–winning Knight Owl (2022), the fierce yet impossibly cute nocturnal, armor-clad owlet faces a new challenge—sleep deprivation—in the wake of taking on Early Bird, a trainee who rises with the sun and chatters interminably: “I made pancakes! Do you like pancakes? I love pancakes! Where’s the syrup?” It’s enough to test the patience of even the knightliest of owls, and eventually Knight Owl explodes in anger. But although Early Bird is even smaller than her mentor, she turns out to be just as determined to achieve knighthood. After he tells her to leave, she acquits herself so nobly in a climactic encounter with a pack of wolves that she earns a place at the castle. Denise proves a dab hand at depicting genuinely slinky, scary wolves as well as slipping cheerfully anachronistic newspapers and other sight gags into his realistically wrought medieval settings to underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone. Better yet, a final view of the doughty duo sitting down together to a lavish pancake breakfast/dinner at dusk ends the episode in a sweet rush of syrup and bonhomie.
An immersive, charming read and convincing proof again that even small bodies can house stout hearts. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780316564526
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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