A gentle alternative to Bernard Waber’s “You Look Ridiculous,” Said the Rhinoceros to the Hippopotamus (1966) and other...
In this Arctic tale, a wolf discontented with his own nature tries on other animals’ features, with dismal results.
Rather than run and play like other wolves, the subject of this apparently original story prefers to spy on caribou, wolverines, and snowy owls. He so envies them that he even collects shed antlers, wisps of long fur, and a dropped feather. So heartfelt is the song he sings of his yearning that with the “Land’s Strength” he is actually able to attach all of these to his body. But then he returns to his pack and discovers that he fits in even worse than before. In fact, his new patchwork features impede his ability to hunt and eat. Away he wanders, wasting away until the “mother of the wolves” comes to him. She coaxes him to return and to live as a wolf. With his pack’s love he is able to undo the changes, healing in both body and spirit. Echoing the narrative’s formal cadences, all of the creatures in Cook’s muted, windswept tundra scenes pose gracefully. The sinuous white wolf cuts a particularly noble figure and so looks all the stranger when decked out in his borrowed finery. But he is never seen as ridiculous, only misguided, and all ends well: “He was a wolf—and that in itself was admirable.”
A gentle alternative to Bernard Waber’s “You Look Ridiculous,” Said the Rhinoceros to the Hippopotamus (1966) and other self-acceptance tales. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-7722-7005-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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