This ideal post–aquarium-visit souvenir has similar child appeal. (Picture book. 3-7)
The excitement of the ocean world from the beach to the deep and all between is conveyed by the jam-packed illustrations in this celebration.
The text is limited to a sentence before the title page setting up the premise—Izzy’s family goes to the beach—and captions for the double-page spreads—“Wow! Shells!” “Wow! Tide Pool!” “Wow! Turtles!” and so forth. Each busy, oversized spread contains a colorful framed illustration with numerous figures drawn with a heavy, black line. Each creature has an almost inconspicuous label. Even the frames are filled with color splotches. Two children, variously equipped with surf boards, masks, diving gear and submersible vehicles, explore these waters. Sharp-eyed readers will also follow their dog chasing the crab through each setting (even in the fishy endpapers). The author has chosen his creatures carefully, including many his readers will already have heard of (octopus, manta rays, blue whales, great white sharks) and more that will be new. These are not pictured to scale but are reasonably recognizable by shape and coloration. There’s humor and fantasy (in the deep, the dog sprouts fins and a tail) but also plenty of solid identification information for readers who like to know the names of things. Izzy’s enthusiasm will be familiar to readers of Wow! City! (2004), Wow! America! (2006) and Wow! School! (2007).
This ideal post–aquarium-visit souvenir has similar child appeal. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4231-3113-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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
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