Finding a friend is less a matter of sheer will than quiet acceptance in this charming new work.
Picture-book heroines are rarely quite as irrepressible as Lucy the tutu-and-bow–clad bear from Children Make Terrible Pets (2010). Now a follow-up tackles the difficult task precocious children face when seeking out companionship. Fueled more by enthusiasm than sense, Lucy informs her mother that on this day she is going to find herself a brand-new friend. Yet while her intentions are good, Lucy’s befriending techniques are a bit brash for the woodland creatures she encounters. Even threats don’t work, so Lucy declares her task hopeless, until another bow-wearing animal fulfills Lucy’s greatest wishes. Brown has pinpointed the problems some kids face in befriending their fellows, though few would come on as strong as his heroine. The language is the real lure here, with Lucy’s single-mindedness best illustrated when she informs an egg, “You WILL be my friend! I can wait.” Handlettered speech balloons and wood borders give the book a rustic but friendly feel, with endpapers that should not be missed.
While many friendship stories verge on twee, this title eschews the cute and allows kids to both identify with and pity Lucy’s struggle to find her own bosom companion. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-07030-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Children realize their dreams one step at a time in this story about growth mindset.
A child crashes and damages a new bicycle on a dark, rainy day. Attempting a wheelie, the novice cyclist falls onto the sidewalk, grimacing, and, having internalized this setback as failure, vows to never ride again but to “walk…forever.” Then the unnamed protagonist happens upon a glowing orb in the forest, a “thought rearranger-er”—a luminous pink fairy called the Magical Yet. This Yet reminds the child of past accomplishments and encourages perseverance. The second-person rhyming couplets remind readers that mistakes are part of learning and that with patience and effort, children can achieve. Readers see the protagonist learn to ride the bike before a flash-forward shows the child as a capable college graduate confidently designing a sleek new bike. This book shines with diversity: racial, ethnic, ability, and gender. The gender-indeterminate protagonist has light brown skin and exuberant curly locks; Amid the bustling secondary cast, one child uses a prosthesis, and another wears hijab. At no point in the text is the Yet defined as a metaphor for a growth mindset; adults reading with younger children will likely need to clarify this abstract lesson. The artwork is powerful and detailed—pay special attention to the endpapers that progress to show the Yet at work.
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-02562-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Hee haw.
35
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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. 29, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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