A fun and bouncy adventure for the earliest readers.
Join Bip and Zip, two pea-green, antennaed extraterrestrial cartoon friends (or siblings), for another in the Adventures of Zip series. Bip, wearing a diaper, is the younger and smaller of the two. A zap from Zip causes Bip to begin to grow. At first, Bip grows to be just as large as Zip, and the two play ball. Zip wins and smugly celebrates the triumph. But a delighted Bip continues to grow, ballooning until Bip is several times larger than Zip—and also somehow becoming light enough to blow away, rising into the stratosphere. Zip is helpless to save Bip. “Zip’s zaps are much too low!” Eventually, Bip effectuates a zap without Zip, becomes small again, and falls back toward Zip. But what luck! When Bip falls, the still-smiling being lands on a ball and is lucky enough to bounce up, up, up again and complete an amazing twisting triple somersault before safely landing. In the end as Bip takes a bow, Zip is forced to declare Bip the “best by far!” Prefacing this stand-alone story are boxes of word families, sight words, and bonus words to practice or review before reading. Most illustrations are compositionally simple, positioning Zip and Bip against plain white backgrounds, and most pages contain just one or two short rhyming sentences. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Zip and Bip have the touch to zap fun into early reading. (Graphic early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8928-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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Even more alliterative hanky-panky from the creators of The Wonky Donkey (2010).
Operating on the principle (valid, here) that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, Smith and Cowley give their wildly popular Wonky Donkey a daughter—who, being “cute and small,” was a “dinky donkey”; having “beautiful long eyelashes” she was in consequence a “blinky dinky donkey”; and so on…and on…and on until the cumulative chorus sails past silly and ludicrous to irresistibly hysterical: “She was a stinky funky plinky-plonky winky-tinky,” etc. The repeating “Hee Haw!” chorus hardly suggests what any audience’s escalating response will be. In the illustrations the daughter sports her parent’s big, shiny eyes and winsome grin while posing in a multicolored mohawk next to a rustic boombox (“She was a punky blinky”), painting her hooves pink, crossing her rear legs to signal a need to pee (“winky-tinky inky-pinky”), demonstrating her smelliness with the help of a histrionic hummingbird, and finally cozying up to her proud, evidently single parent (there’s no sign of another) for a closing cuddle.
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-60083-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A girl spies a gleaming bike in a shop window and decides to earn enough money doing yardwork to buy it.
This wordless, retro book (the girl’s molded curls, turtleneck, plaid skirt and Mary Janes definitely come from another era) champions both grit and kindness, but it seems mighty bleak at times. Moody cement-gray papers, nearly colorless illustrations and a cast of cold adults make the girl’s determination and her working relationship with one kind neighbor all the more moving. Much of Pett’s engrossing narrative is relayed through characters’ limbs, eyes and brows, as many times they simply don’t have mouths. The blank effect of a face without a smile, smirk or frown carries unexpected weight, delivering a sense that the character struggles to withhold or manage emotions. And talk about emotions! After working for the same spectacled lady for months earning money raking, planting and cleaning, the girl rushes to the store only to find her bike already sold. Many young readers may reel just imagining such staggering disappointment and be further boggled by her angelic decision to purchase a tricycle for her small brother instead. Never fear, a Capra-esque ending awaits.
Like an old black-and-white movie, this companion to The Boy and the Airplane (2013) will remain charming and relevant—the old story about what you get when you give never really gets old. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-8319-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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