Fans of Charlie’s previous picture books will like reading more about his life on the ranch, but others might concur with...
Basset hound Charlie learns to share with a visiting yellow Lab named Rowdy in this mildly entertaining early reader.
Charlie has previously starred in several picture books about his life on the ranch owned by author Drummond. This offering for beginning readers, the first in a series, uses Drummond’s characters and deGroat’s illustration style from the previous picture books, although the text and illustrations here are done by others (presumably the Amanda Glickman and Rick Whipple “gratefully acknowledge[d]” on the copyright page). The slight plot involves a visit from Rowdy, who is (of course) a boisterous sort whose personality doesn’t mesh well with the laconic basset hound. Rowdy takes over Charlie’s food and bed, invades his “personal space” and cozies up to Charlie’s owner. After Rowdy is banished to an outside doghouse, Charlie takes pity on him and invites him inside to share the sofa for a nap. The illustrations help convey the canine personalities through amusing expressions on the dogs’ faces, and Charlie’s little chipmunk friend is hidden on each spread for young readers to find.
Fans of Charlie’s previous picture books will like reading more about his life on the ranch, but others might concur with Rowdy as he naps on the sofa: “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.” (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: July 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-221909-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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