The genuine love expressed between owner and pet fortifies the responsibilities Patch’s owner undertakes.
A young child is confident a new puppy will adhere to newly learned rules on a first outing beyond the backyard fence.
The unnamed, pigtailed, bespectacled narrator is patient yet strict with their new dog, Patch, named for the black splotch over one eye. They practice the commands of “sit,” “down,” and “stay” (a hard one) to prepare. Once they open the gate and venture out, the leashed Patch is quite excited to encounter butterflies, bugs, and muddy puddles. The highlight of the walk is when they meet Benny, a little boy with his new puppy, a much larger, shaggy canine called Smallfry. “The two puppies leap…and roll…and tussle.” After untangling their leashes, Patch and her owner walk home for a cleanup, some water, and a nap. Fundamentals of puppy training and pet ownership are the underlying themes that give structure to this rather bland storyline—both Benny and the narrator are careful to disclose that their pups have had their shots before allowing them to play, for instance. Carter supplies attractive illustrations done with colored pencil, watercolor, and digital media against a stark white background. The narrator presents white and Benny black; the narrator’s jewel-toned, print dress is especially attractive.
The genuine love expressed between owner and pet fortifies the responsibilities Patch’s owner undertakes. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: June 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77278-080-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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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