It’s safe to say that Peepers curtsies to a different drummer at the Royal Academy for Perfect Princesses. She fails to conform to the dainty interests the other girls enjoy. The students follow social mores to a T, but Peepers crashes the tea party on her skateboard and dangles upside down to strengthen her posture. When the students plan a pet show, Peepers hopes to find a suitable selection; unfortunately, her potential entries exude too much slime or bear too many appendages to be popular choices. As in her first, self-titled adventure (2008), the absence of Peepers’ glasses leads to disastrous results. She falls upon a fantastic creature she mistakenly identifies as a dirty, fire-breathing, winged unicorn, which she brings us her entry in the competition. Peepers’ quirks reveal a sympathetic character; her internal musings and wistful dialogue demonstrate her longing for acceptance. Buttressed by details (“watching dragonflies buzz always helped her think”), Peepers’ personality comes through loud and clear. The emphasis here is on social differences instead of physical ones; the royal waifs' uniformly slim stature does little to promote acceptance of varied body images. Digital painting and graphite merge with bold collage images to glossy effect, and elongated limbs provide a whimsical nuance. It's a light regal romp, forgoing the need for any extra pomp or circumstance. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5815-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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