Willy is an indoor cat, but outside looks enticing.
Willy’s mom says indoors is cozier (and it sure looks that way, with a fire in the wood stove and a grandfather clock ticking away). “ 'Those outdoor cats are weird and wild— / they’re not like us.’ said Dad. / But Willy wondered while he watched. / I bet they’re not so bad.” The little gray-striped black puss ventures out and sees the outdoor cats engaged in their Winter Carnival. A yellow tabby sees that Willy is new and invites him to try sledding, and the two of them speed down the hill. With a few more friends, they hang from icicles, build snow cats, make angels, and skate. “Too soon the sun was setting. / Willy said, ‘I have to go!’ / He added, ‘Come along with me, / I live indoors, you know.’ ” Once inside, the kittens play and have cookies and milk…and from then on visit every day. Lawler’s playful winter tale conveys a perhaps not-so-subtle message of acceptance of the differences of others; still, it will fit nicely into many storytimes with its bouncy rhyme and Everykitten characters. Smietanka’s smiling, anthropomorphic cartoon cats of various colors live as humans, and readers may well wonder how Willy’s family manages never to leave its suburban-style house—but it is a bright and cheery one.
Feline aficionados (and others) will not be left cold. (Picture book. 2-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8075-9124-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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A feel-good book about self-acceptance.
Empire star Byers and Bobo offer a beautifully illustrated, rhyming picture book detailing what one brown-skinned little girl with an impressive Afro appreciates about herself. Relying on similes, the text establishes a pattern with the opening sentence, “Like the sun, I’m here to shine,” and follows it through most of the book. Some of them work well, while others fall flat: “Like the rain, I’m here to pour / and drip and fall until I’m full.” In some vignettes she’s by herself; and in others, pictured along with children of other races. While the book’s pro-diversity message comes through, the didactic and even prideful expressions of self-acceptance make the book exasperatingly preachy—a common pitfall for books by celebrity authors. In contrast, Bobo’s illustrations are visually stunning. After painting the children and the objects with which they interact, such as flowers, books, and a red wagon, in acrylic on board for a traditional look, she scanned the images into Adobe Photoshop and added the backgrounds digitally in chalk. This lends a whimsical feel to such details as a rainbow, a window, wind, and rain—all reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon. Bobo creates an inclusive world of girls in which wearing glasses, using a wheelchair, wearing a head scarf, and having a big Afro are unconditionally accepted rather than markers for othering.
A pro-girl book with illustrations that far outshine the text. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-266712-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
Hee haw.
32
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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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