A relatable copycat…ahem, copydog scenario.
Two canine sisters confront a common sibling squabble.
Elise and Rosemont get along well. They share and take turns; they are everything a sisterhood should be. Except Rosemont won’t stop copying her older sister. It’s so annoying! In true OHora fashion, the depiction of Rosemont’s imitations is bonkers: When Elise starts playing the sousaphone, so does Rosemont (the curlicue instrument lets out a loud “SKRONK”). When Elise dresses as a pickle for Halloween, Rosemont is a cornichon. And don’t even ask who invented Cookie Soup—both sisters lay claim to that discovery. Elise accuses Rosemont of being a “copydog.” “I’m not a copydog!” responds Rosemont. “We just like the same things, that’s all”—an exchange that will be all too familiar to kids with siblings of their own. But the biggest frustration is when Rosemont comes to a birthday party thrown for Fuzzy—Elise’s best friend from OHora’s Fuzzy, Inside and Out (2021)—and gives him the same present that Elise made! Elise storms out of the party and roller-skates away, furious. Luckily, Rosemont copies Elise’s caring and helpful moments, too, and is there to pick her up (literally) when she’s down. Chatty speech bubbles dot the text, and Elise’s annoyance is palpable in the art, with overhead scribbles and jagged, spiky shouts. Instructions on how to make a rainstick (Fuzzy’s present) are appended.
A relatable copycat…ahem, copydog scenario. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781419765018
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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
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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