“Thankz, Buzz!” says the grateful guest of honor at the end. Readers will agree it’s the least a boy could do for his buzzom...
In this antic series’ 17th episode, Buzz throws his lonely pet fly a surprizze party.
Inspired by Fly Guy’s drawings of “Muzzer” and “Fazzer,” Buzz plants tiny invitations in every reeking trash can and pile of rot in the neighborhood—and opens the door to thousands of Fly Guy’s relatives, after assuring them there are no “swatterzz” on the premises. “Wow!” says Buzz, delighted. “Flies have big families!” Fly Guy too is delighted: “Bruzzer! / Sizzter! / … / Auntzie! / Unkz!” Buzz’s parents are, understandably, nonplussed, but Buzz has it all planned out…even to the catering, as a garbage truck drives up and dumps a heap of stinking refuse in the yard. Out fly the guests to chow down and play amid the noxious noshes. It’s a grand party, but time (as they say) flies, and ultimately the swarms disperse as the garbage is bagged up. As with all the Fly Guy books, Arnold makes the most of the contrast between readers’ received assumptions about flies and Buzz’s total ignorance of them, genially giving the former a 90-degree twist. Page-filling fleets of flies may give some readers (or their caregivers) pause, but it’s hard not to get a kick out of the way the flies tuck into their garbage banquet, and the baby picture of a larval Fly Guy with a pacifier is pretty darn cute.
“Thankz, Buzz!” says the grateful guest of honor at the end. Readers will agree it’s the least a boy could do for his buzzom buddy . (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-66316-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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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