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
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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