Glowing illustrations enliven this tale of nature’s delights.
Nature at night offers a magical experience—one, sadly, now threatened by humans.
Diego, Lili, Chico the dog, Papa and Mama, and the young narrator, Sofia, are eager to view fireflies. They must be patient and quiet, until suddenly, it’s “like the sky dropped in!” as the air fills with sparkles. Sofia isn’t content just to dance with the fireflies; the child sets out to catch one—and does. Eventually the narrator’s possessiveness (“mine all mine”) gives way to empathy, and Sofia frees the firefly and then “flies” off, “wild and free” with the other children and Chico. Text includes both rhyming verses and dialogue. The meter isn’t always consistent, and some phrasing is awkward (“The porch is hot / with wiggly feet”). In the charming, collagelike art, the hot oranges of sunset give way to violet, turquoise, teal, and navy shades. Colors form simplified flat shapes, without lines; vegetation is stylized. The narrator and Papa wear glasses; Mama, Lili, and Sofia are brown-skinned, while Papa and Diego are pale-skinned. Backmatter conveys a lot of information about fireflies, including why they flash and where they can be found, but nowhere are we told what the titular firefly galaxy is, and the visuals don’t clarify that term.
Glowing illustrations enliven this tale of nature’s delights. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9798888590720
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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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Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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