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ONE HUNDRED BONES

Name: ONE HUNDRED BONES
Author: Yuval Zommer
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8183-8

by Yuval Zommer ; illustrated by Yuval Zommer ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2016

Good for Scruff, though. It’s nice to have a “friend” who appreciates your innate talent.

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Every dog will have his day, even the scruffiest of strays.

Zommer’s Scruff is a homeless mutt. Percy the pug, Pixie the poodle, Sydney the dachshund, and Ada the Afghan have collars and “human friends” who groom them. Scruff is a dog’s dog: he goes his own way, he trespasses, and, most of all, he digs, usually in the wrong places, like the other dogs’ yards. Chased away by their cold, fussy human friends, Scruff makes for the great open spaces where stuffy old humans won’t smother his spirit. And lo, his nose leads him to the mother lode: too many bones for one dog to wrestle himself. When he tries to enlist the other four dogs to dig, they demur; when he mentions the word “bones”—hey, presto—their inner dogs emerge. Smart dogs, they bring their find to London’s Natural History Museum, where Professor Dinovsky assembles them into the “most ferocious dinosaur ever found.” In turn, Dinovsky becomes Scruff’s “human friend” but one that encourages his digging. The visual jokes will fly over young heads—the queen’s trademark coat and corgis—and “human friend” sounds graspingly correct (why not “caregiver” or “steward”?). Plus, with this bunch of human prigs and grumps, who needs “friends”? The muted, retro-style digital artwork is pretty enough, but it has little personality or warmth.

Good for Scruff, though. It’s nice to have a “friend” who appreciates your innate talent. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: April 26, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-7636-8183-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Templar/Candlewick

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S DINOSAURS & PREHISTORIC CREATURES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WILD
by Yuval Zommer ; illustrated by Yuval Zommer

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BIG BOOK OF NATURE ART
by Yuval Zommer ; illustrated by Yuval Zommer

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LIGHTS THAT DANCE IN THE NIGHT
by Yuval Zommer ; illustrated by Yuval Zommer

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

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With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)