Inspiration to step—or dance—out of one’s comfort zone.
Doris, a dappled gray circus horse, has always loved performing in the ring, but she’s curious about life outside the big top.
The dancing horse goes out to discover new places and moves lithely through the night. “She couldn’t help wondering…wandering, springing, spinning out of step.” Is she happy in her new environment or scared or “dizzy with moonness”? As she continues her dance and doesn’t hear the usual applause at the end, she questions her situation. “Did I wander too far? Am I the only one out here?”And then, all of a sudden, there is a new friend in the moonlight, a small brown pony who loves Doris’ dancing and also enjoys prancing. Doris is no longer frightened and has a partner in exploration. As the sun comes up, Doris asks her new friend, “What else do you think is out there?” With its graceful multimedia illustrations, swirling images created with watercolors, pastels, and Photoshop, and short, lyrical text that sometimes dances on the page in agile arcs, this delightful book can be used as a read-aloud in schools or libraries or in more intimate family settings. Children will quickly recognize Doris’ ambivalent feelings as she escapes her comfortable circus life for new encounters in the woods, similar to their own growing-up experiences as they move outside into the larger world. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Inspiration to step—or dance—out of one’s comfort zone. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781250829382
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 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
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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