Warmth and world peace, one stitch at a time, but there are a lot of stitches to go before readers get there
The yarn gets knotty and tangled up in this tale of knitted happiness.
The village of River John in far northeastern Canada is filled with joy at the birth of a baby lamb. It brings visitors to the town, namely Count Woolliam and the Countess of Fleece and Fluff, siblings from Woolland. They want the lamb for their obsession with wool, which they use for everything from mittens to toilet paper. But they crave the warmth only for themselves, not their cold subjects. Another visitor to River John is the titular Polly, a recluse whose sweetheart died in a long-ago war and who crafts in every way possible using yarn. She has a very special project in mind, and only the wool from the lamb, named Star, can be used. The Count and Countess are convinced to leave Star with the villagers so that Polly and the local women can use its wool. The message is delivered via a homophone: there is love and wool enough for the whole world so share this “yarn” of a tale. The writing is overlong, overwrought, and overfull of alliteration and wordplay. Fitch adopts a storyteller’s voice, which could have carried it, but at its substantial length, the tale makes for a read-aloud challenge. A ribbon of blue and green winds through the pages, evoking the river, the fields, the knitting, and the whole wide world enveloped in wooly love.
Warmth and world peace, one stitch at a time, but there are a lot of stitches to go before readers get there . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-927917-10-7
Page Count: 68
Publisher: Running the Goat
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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