There’s plenty of yuck-factor silliness, and the penultimate spread, of the family uniting for “cleanup hour,” is very...
Dirty dishes, food and leaves on the floor, mice, nasty insects like big-eyed flies, spiders, mice, a butterfly or two—what is a tidy little girl to do?
Federica’s dad is busy with his telescope. Federica’s mum (wearing rollerblades) is occupied with her laptop and her painting. Her little brother seems perfectly content, but the “buggy, buzzy mess” amusingly pictured in the first double-page spread really bothers Federica. She goes to the park for respite. It’s full of unusual creatures: a goat and some sheep. There are also raccoons, an owl, a toad, and, of course, insects. It’s there that the young white girl thinks of a plan that will transform her messy house. There is a hint of the Yiddish folk tale familiar from It Could Always Be Worse, by Margot Zemach (1977). Federica brings all the park animals into her home, but here the animals are not meant to crowd out the humans but rather to eat the flies and mice, clean the kitchen, and consume the long grass. The resourceful girl succeeds in making her house fit for habitation again and releases the animals back to the park. The loose ink-and–Adobe Photoshop illustrations are a riot, milking the absurdity for all it’s worth. At the end, the mother rollerblades as she washes the floor, with baby brother riding the mop.
There’s plenty of yuck-factor silliness, and the penultimate spread, of the family uniting for “cleanup hour,” is very inviting. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-968-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 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
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