Despite best intentions, Taylor has been unable to achieve his dream of exploring the world, as described in series opener Sydney & Taylor Explore the Whole Wide World (2021).
Taylor is a hedgehog with many Big Ideas; his best friend, Sydney, is a skunk who much prefers a quiet existence in their well-appointed burrow. Taylor is brave, until he isn’t, while calm, supportive Sydney is usually the one who rescues him from his follies. This time Taylor’s Big Idea is so outrageous that Sydney laughs at him, deeply hurting his feelings. Taylor has decided that he is going to fly. A plan promulgated by some friendly birds works for a while, but Taylor hits panic position and Sydney breaks the fall. Deer send him to a bat, a mammal that flies. Taylor is pulled up on the roof with an umbrella tied to him for webbing. But he panics again, and Sydney breaks this fall also. A flying toy buzzes over and lands near them, giving Sydney an even Bigger Idea. A few safety measures, some near disasters, and more Big Ideas later, and the friends are happily safe at home after a successful conclusion. Davies tells the tale with great humor in vivid, expressive syntax, working in a few animal facts along the way. Taylor and Sydney are genuine friends who accept each other’s idiosyncrasies. Bright illustrations appear in vignettes, single-, and double-page spreads, closely following the action, capturing the characters’ every changing emotion in expressive faces and body language, and adding many delightful and intricate details.
Friendship is enduring in this hilarious adventure just right for independent young readers. (Animal fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-10635-7
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
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Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Hee haw.
28
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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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