A useful narrative that, one fervently hopes, will become obsolete before too long.
These are the times that try everyone’s souls—even a cat’s.
Levin, a rambunctious feline, lives with Jane, a nurse. The Covid-19 pandemic is raging, and Jane, like other medical professionals, works at her hospital for long hours and isn’t at home much. Levin misses her. Then Daniel, Jane’s friend and another community first responder, tells Levin that Jane’s assigned to the isolation unit and won’t be home at all for a while. Daniel cares for Levin and helps him “visit” Jane via phone conferencing. Eventually, Levin moves elsewhere and makes new animal and human friends and enemies. He also willingly becomes something of a community helper himself, knowing that everyone must pull together in a crisis. This gently told, hopeful, nonfrightening tale, translated from Chinese and obviously set in the present moment, isn’t so much a story as it is purpose-driven: It aims to help youngsters easily understand what the current emergency is about and what it demands of everyone. Casting a loving, sympathetic pet as the protagonist makes the story accessible, comprehensible, and upbeat. Children who know frontline workers will find support here. Illustrations are sweet and lively; Levin is spunky, energetic, and personable. Common-sense recommended guidelines about social distancing and mask wearing are incorporated into a spread; the passage of weeks is depicted with digital clocks. Jane and Daniel both have pale skin and straight, brown hair; background characters are diverse.
A useful narrative that, one fervently hopes, will become obsolete before too long. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64074-119-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cardinal Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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 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
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