A lighthearted frolic with lively illustrations—Scruff peeing on the tree that holds his “Wanted” sign is bound to be a...
Scruff, dog extraordinaire, leads a diverse group of dog friends on an investigation to determine who stole the sausages from the butcher’s shop.
Scruff’s favorite thing in the world is sausages (author/illustrator Zommer treats readers to a visual variety of sausages—100 of them—right off the bat in the endpapers), and he likes to stop outside the butcher’s shop daily to ogle the sausages hanging in its window. One fateful day the sausages are missing—stolen. Scruff, suspected by the mayor, the police chief, and the butcher of stealing them (with the “Wanted” signs to show it), is determined to prove his innocence by finding the thief. The simple plot shows how Scruff sniffs out the real thief, after which he and his friends our rewarded by his erstwhile accusers—with a meal of sausages, of course. The story’s real zing comes from its collagelike, digitally created illustrations. Lively and almost slapdash in their presentation, they amplify and complement the narrative urgency Scruff feels to catch the thief. Zommer omits or obscures the faces and heads of the humans in the story, but their hands are light-skinned. A cat that skulks in the illustrations throughout adds a weak ending twist.
A lighthearted frolic with lively illustrations—Scruff peeing on the tree that holds his “Wanted” sign is bound to be a reader favorite. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9297-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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