Imatge de l'autor

Craig Smith (1) (1972–)

Autor/a de The Wonky Donkey

Per altres autors anomenats Craig Smith, vegeu la pàgina de desambiguació.

9 obres 3,535 Membres 43 Ressenyes

Sobre l'autor

Born in Clyde, central Otago, New Zealand, in 1972, Craig Smith grew up living in the scenic South Island tourist town of Queenstown with his mother and five siblings. Craig has worked at a variety of jobs, from cook to ski instructor. As a child he remembers telling his mother, "When I grow up, mostra'n més I'm going to become a musician." Her answer? "You can't do both!" She was right. Although he spends much of his time writing songs for an adult audience, Craig couldn't escape his childish side and was soon writing songs ""or the less mature." In late 2007, Craig released his first kids' album Not Just for Kids. The first track from this album - THE WONKY DONKEY - won the APRA NZ Children's Song of the Year Award in 2008 and ended up making the top 25 songs in the children's section of the ISC International Songwriting Contest - the world's biggest song competition. In 2009, The Wonky Donkey was published as a book with hilarious illustrations by Craig's friend, Katz Cowley. This talented duo is now working on another book and song project - Willbee the Bumblebee - due out from Scholastic next year. Craig now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, and, when he is not working on his children's music/books, he works as an itinerant musician, playing in restaurants and pubs, at market days and festivals, playing music for young and old. mostra'n menys

Sèrie

Obres de Craig Smith

The Wonky Donkey (2007) 2,315 exemplars
The Dinky Donkey (2019) 536 exemplars
The Grinny Granny Donkey (2020) 303 exemplars
Willbee the bumblebee (2010) 183 exemplars
Wonky Donkey's Big Surprise (2021) 133 exemplars
My daddy ate an apple (2013) 24 exemplars
Square Eyes (2014) 22 exemplars
Kaha the kea (2012) 3 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Data de naixement
1972
Gènere
male
Nacionalitat
New Zealand
Professions
songwriter
singer

Membres

Ressenyes

Get ready for some punny, tongue-twisting fun! If you've got a southern accent under your belt (which I do not), this one is even better. There's also a song version of this on YouTube.
 
Marcat
sloth852 | Hi ha 38 ressenyes més | Jan 12, 2024 |
The Wonky Donkey had a baby y'all! And yes, this book is just as fun as that one.
 
Marcat
msgabbythelibrarian | Hi ha 3 ressenyes més | Jun 11, 2023 |
Quite the tongue twister! If you haven't seen the YouTube video of the Scottish grandma reading it to her grandson, go look for it.
 
Marcat
KellyCook | Hi ha 38 ressenyes més | May 12, 2023 |
This originally appeared in Grandpappy's Corner at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
WHAT'S WONKY DONKEY ABOUT?
Lifted from the lyrics of a children's song, the book starts:

I was walking down the road and I saw...
a donkey,
Hee Haw!

And goes on from there to describe this unfortunate equine in more and more detailed (and ridiculous) ways--starting with its three legs, going on to describe its taste in music, coffee consumption, attitude, attractiveness, and so on.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ART FOR A MINUTE
Katz Cowley is fantastic. The natural world and physical objects are presented in a great realistic fashion--heightened just a bit. The titular donkey and a bird that shows up in every scene, however, are a goofy cartoonish exaggeration of that fashion

I don't know who decided to give this donkey a prosthetic leg--but it only comes up in the illustrations, so I'm going to give Cowley credit for it. It's a great detail on many levels.

The expressions on the bird and donkey are the stars of the show--better than the words (by a crooked hair). I don't know how a child can look at them and not want to stare. Or not wanting to pick up the book for another reading session.

Especially when a child is the age of the target audience, the adult reading the book is going to see themselves in the coffee-less expression of the donkey on the page talking about the caffeine deprivation. So everyone wins?

You can see some of the art, and learn more about the book, on Cowley's website.

HOW IS IT TO READ ALOUD?
Ohhh boy. This is going to be hard to convey. First, it was only after I'd read this that I took the time to track down the song, but I couldn't help but get a sing-songy cadence and voice as I read it. I also found myself talking faster and faster as I went through the book--like there was this unconscious effort on my part to spend the same amount of time reading each pair of pages--like a snowball rolling downhill, growing bigger and getting faster. This is great and all, but it's also kind of a workout of both stamina and verbal dexterity.

You can't help having fun with these lines--even as they build up and repeat like the 12 Days of Christmas. Really, try being expressionless or frowny while saying "He was a hanky-panky crank stink-dinky lanky honky-tonky wink wonky donkey." You can't, can you?

You might need to start using a spirometer before cracking this thing open though. As fun as it is, you're going to end up getting requests for encores, and after 2-3 readings in a row, it's going to lose a little bit of its charm. So keep something else around so you can switch to it for a minute or two before having to come back.

(between you and me, the song isn't my style. I really hope the Grandcritter doesn't discover it, because it feels like the kind of thing that'd you'd have to listen to 30 times a day--like that ditty about an infant scaleless predatory fish)

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT WONKY DONKEY?
A couple of weeks ago, my wife was telling a friend about our prep work for grandkids, including all the books we're starting to stockpile. Once she got over being aghast that we'd never heard of The Wonky Donkey, she insisted that we fix this. We dutifully complied and it's either one of the best moves we've made or one of the worst (see what I said above about reading it).

Joking aside, this is a great book for the intended age group. I'm going to have to do a deep dive into both the work of Smith and Cowley.

The other thing my wife's friend told us was to get the board book--and she was right again. Parents/Grandparents/Etc. Do NOT get the paperback or hardcover. If the child(ren) doesn't/don't like the book, you'll have spent too much money. If they do like the book (the more likely outcome), they will destroy it. It's going to demand the number of re-re-re-re-reads that anything else won't hold up to it. It's also going to end up being one of those books a kid is going to carry around with them and flip through themselves--a lot. Paperbacks/hardcovers will not survive the gumming, accidental ripping, deliberate ripping, and overall expressions of toddler love that are so destructive.

I can't see where this doesn't become a tongue-tying obsession. The book you know the kid will love, you enjoy (the first few times a day you read it), you end up memorizing without trying to and just hope your lung capacity holds out during. It's fun, it's goofy, and it's the kind of thing you'll look back on in fondness.
… (més)
 
Marcat
hcnewton | Hi ha 38 ressenyes més | May 12, 2023 |

Llistes

Premis

Potser també t'agrada

Autors associats

Estadístiques

Obres
9
Membres
3,535
Popularitat
#7,186
Valoració
4.1
Ressenyes
43
ISBN
230
Llengües
9

Gràfics i taules