A wholly gratifying tale of a small fish in a huge pond that nevertheless proves its mettle.
Little or big, the puffer fish knows itself very well.
This excellent early reader starts out with a case of classic one-upmanship as a school of colorful small fry approach a slightly larger, yellow puffer fish. “Wow, you are a big fish,” they say admiringly. A nearby jumbo shrimp isn’t impressed and says so, injecting wordplay for good measure: “No, you are not. I am big, and I am shrimp-ly amazing.” Bigger and bigger marine life appear in the playful, cartoon-style illustrations, each one declaring itself larger (and by implication, better), but the yellow fish holds its ground. “If you are a big fish, then PROVE IT,” chides a blue-colored fish. In an admirable display of integrity and self-possession, the yellow fish responds, “No, I do not have to. I am leaving.” Cue the Jaws music: Just after those who have been teasing the yellow fish declare themselves hungry, a shark appears on the verso of the spread. “I would love a nice BIG FISH.” Exercising terrific use of composition and layout, Jin has all the others flee to the right on the recto, suddenly eager to proclaim their relative smallness—all except the yellow fish. In a supremely satisfying twist, “POP! POOF!,” the little yellow fish puffs up to dominate the page, outsizing all rivals—even the shark!
A wholly gratifying tale of a small fish in a huge pond that nevertheless proves its mettle. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781665983402
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor
Having surveyed worms, spiders, flies, and head lice, Gravel continues her Disgusting Critters series with a quick hop through toad fact and fancy.
The facts are briefly presented in a hand-lettered–style typeface frequently interrupted by visually emphatic interjections (“TOXIN,” “PREY,” “EWWW!”). These are, as usual, paired to simply drawn cartoons with comments and punch lines in dialogue balloons. After casting glances at the common South American ancestor of frogs and toads, and at such exotic species as the Emei mustache toad (“Hey ladies!”), Gravel focuses on the common toad, Bufo bufo. Using feminine pronouns throughout, she describes diet and egg-laying, defense mechanisms, “warts,” development from tadpole to adult, and of course how toads shed and eat their skins. Noting that global warming and habitat destruction have rendered some species endangered or extinct, she closes with a plea and, harking back to those South American origins, an image of an outsized toad, arm in arm with a dark-skinned lad (in a track suit), waving goodbye: “Hasta la vista!”
A light dose of natural history, with occasional “EWWW!” for flavor . (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77049-667-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
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