A cautionary tale about creating too much noise that involves the abrupt disappearance of a human being. Humorous or...
Fluffywuffy is a perfectly nice white longhaired dog with a red-and-white polka-dot hair bow.
The dog shares Mr. Moot’s penchant for quiet, and not a bark or a yip comes from him. When Cousin Clarence, an outsize character in a yellow-and-brown plaid ensemble and a large hat, shows up unexpectedly for a visit of undetermined length, the pet continues to maintain silence. The visitor soon proves to be quite a trial. Clarence likes to make noise while Mr. Moot, a small man with a black brushy mustache, and Fluffywuffy (and a pink teddy) try to sleep. One night, Clarence plays the drums. The next night, he sets up a workshop, complete with rotary saw, and explains, “I just get the urge to make something.” On the third night, he constructs an indoor racecourse and rides around on a motorbike. Mr. Moot is complacent enough to accept his cousin’s odd behavior, but is Fluffywuffy? The mixed-media illustrations have plenty of engaging, amusing details, and Cousin Clarence is a hoot, but this British import has a grisly implied ending. Although Mr. Moot seems oblivious to Clarence’s fate, astute viewers will get the visual clues. Both Mr. Moot and Clarence seem to be white.
A cautionary tale about creating too much noise that involves the abrupt disappearance of a human being. Humorous or macabre? That is the question. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-84780-871-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
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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