This is metafiction done very well; it’s actually three stories in one: Goldilocks’, Papa Bear’s, and of course, the one...
Fractured versions of familiar tales never seem to get old; they’re almost always funny, especially with a main character as hilariously abashed as this one.
The main player is ostensibly Goldilocks, but it’s really Papa Bear, who is the only one who doesn’t realize he’s in a book. Once he does, nerves get the best of him: After uttering his first line correctly, his worries become self-fulfilling when he sits on Baby Bear’s too-small chair, which of course smashes into smithereens, tumbling an embarrassed Papa to the floor. He flees the pages and dashes through other stories, Goldilocks and Baby Bear in hot pursuit, eventually to be drawn back by the smell of Mama’s porridge. Cheerful, bright illustrations utilize creative devices to clarify the action: Characters are able to see (and physically manipulate) the Narrator’s lines; the parts of the plot set in other books are signaled by illustrated page corners turning up or by showing an actual book opened up and Papa Bear romping through its illustrations.
This is metafiction done very well; it’s actually three stories in one: Goldilocks’, Papa Bear’s, and of course, the one read by the Narrator character. All will have children chortling. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: April 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4413-2598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peter Pauper Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 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
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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