A fanciful tale with practical guidance for protecting our planet.
A picture-book parable on environmental stewardship.
“Usually I don’t talk to strangers on the street,” says Lalo, a sailor. But our hero makes an exception upon encountering a talking goldfish in a fishbowl atop a pile of trash. Befitting her bright red color, her name is Rosa, and she longs for “a better life.” To fulfill this wish, Lalo takes Rosa on a global journey, but everywhere they go—a pond, a mountaintop, the Arctic, the jungle, the desert, the River Seine, the beach—they find empty, plastic water bottles, symbolic of broader environmental degradation. “We wondered where all of them came from,” says Lalo on a climactic spread showing the pair in a rowboat on a body of water choked by bottles. The following wordless spread depicts them watching aghast as people lug water bottles from a store; then they join not people but several anthropomorphic animals in cleaning up the ubiquitous litter. In their efforts, they encounter a garden gnome who finally gives Rosa a new home on his fantastically pristine property, and Lalo closes the story with a refreshing glass of tap water. (Fine-print warnings tell readers not to free goldfish in waterways and to ensure tap water’s potability.) Yayo blends attractive visuals, a sense of whimsy, and sound lessons on environmentalism. Human characters have skin the white of the page.
A fanciful tale with practical guidance for protecting our planet. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781990598234
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Tradewind Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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
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