The charismatic Titch may well spark a guinea-pig bubble; he’s that cute.
It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship….
Titch, a chubby guinea pig with a winsome mohawk, waits anxiously, Corduroy-like, in his glass box in the pet shop for a Big Person to adopt him. A boy named Bruno sits in his room wishing for his very own guinea pig. Titch’s efforts to attract an owner pay off when Bruno finds him and takes him home. Titch’s excitement at finally being adopted is tempered with anxiety about the strange habits of his new young owner, who uses the hapless guinea pig as a prop in his wacky experiments. The sedate little pet is not well-adapted to floating in the tub in a saucepan, being flown aloft in a makeshift balloon or hurtling down a track on a homemade train. He gets really worried when Bruno starts planning something big that Titch does not understand. All is well, however, when the final creation is revealed: a “great guinea-pig palace of fun,” complete with Jacuzzi, hammock, convenient celery garden, a snack train bearing Titch’s favorite fruit and “Poo Hut.” Titch realizes that in spite of their different personalities, the pet and his owner are becoming the best of friends. Dempsey’s insightful text and charming pen, pencil and watercolor illustrations are filled with intriguing details that will fuel conversations about what is involved in choosing a pet—as well as plenty of laughs.
The charismatic Titch may well spark a guinea-pig bubble; he’s that cute. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7316-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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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