Steer clear of this one
A rat learns to bargain in this picture book from India.
At first glance, this story starring Chooheram, a rat living on the Punjab plains, looks like a perfect match in the push for increased diversity. It contains Indian references—“roti,” “palanquin,” milking a buffalo—and the richly textured illustrations exude an authentic feel. It also reveals a value system out of whack with the Western mainstream. Chooheram, digging underground during a rainstorm, finds a dry root. He gives it to a man trying to light a fire to make roti for his hungry children. Grateful, the man gives Chooheram a roti. Wonderful! Readers are learning about generosity and helping others. After a few more trades with other people, Chooheram acquires a buffalo, which he then trades for a human bride. What? Did this story just imply that females are possessions? Chooheram, peremptorily, sends his bride to the city to sell plums, where, thankfully, her mother retrieves her. At the denouement, Chooheram vows “never again would he make a bargain. For a dry root, he felt, was so much better than a bride.” To be clear: the book’s design and illustrations are wonderful; even the writing has clever moments. But the implication that women and girls are goods to be traded goes effectively unquestioned, beyond the bride’s clear unhappiness with her new rat husband.
Steer clear of this one . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2015
ISBN: 978-81-8190-168-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Karadi Tales
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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
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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