Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Keeping track of Granny's many, many goats is a group of local children's favorite pastime--though the incorrigible animals make it no easy feat. In rollicking, rhythmic prose, Atinuke (L Is for Love) gleefully tots up the goats by groups of 10, while recounting their mischief making, which ranges from interrupting Granny's phone calls to eating the aunties' panties right off the clothesline ("Once, the brown one stayed on the bus,/ beeping on the/ driver's horn!/ Then the gray stayed/ at the salon,/ and came out/ completely shorn!"). But when little goat 100 wanders into town, leaving havoc in its wake, Granny displays a fierce, unconditional love, admonishing a gathered crowd: "You scared my goat. You scared my goat.// You and you and you and you! You scared my goat!" Then life resets, though the final page reveals that Granny might be orchestrating some mischief herself. Hinds, making her picture book debut, employs naif-style gouache, colored pencil, and pen illustrations to immerse readers in the bustle of a verdant, tight-knit neighborhood and its abiding affection for an indomitable matriarch. Human characters are portrayed with brown skin. Ages 3--7. (May)
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Review by Horn Book Review
This enthusiastic story opens with Granny and a small goat looking lovingly at each other while laundry dries on the line. "Granny's got a goat!" This turns out to be an understatement: rhyming text ramps up the counting after the page-turn as more goats materialize in the background, climbing everywhere and nibbling the laundry. The colors and expressive shapes in the gouache, colored-pencil, and pen illustrations become more boisterous to match the story's escalating pace. Soon other people show up to help wrangle the goats, counting them in increments of ten until they confirm that one hundred are present (and wreaking havoc across the pages). The narrative expounds on how Granny gets through her day with all these goats and how occasionally one gets left behind (on the bus or at the hair salon, for example), while spot art provides visual comedy. Readers are encouraged to help perform a rambunctious recount, and indeed Granny is now one goat short. The whole town devolves into chaos knowing this troublemaker is at large, but venerable Granny ultimately gets everything under control...until the next count. The energy of the interactive text enables this story to work well as a group read-aloud, while the illustrations, full of funny details to note and one hundred mischievous goats to count and recount, make it equally effective for close looking and sharing. Julie RoachJuly/August 2025 p.64 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Counting goats can sure be nifty, but when there's 100 of them, it can also be a challenge. Atinuke taps into the rhythms of Mother Goose for this romp, while Hinds fills her folk art--esque paintings with cheery caprine chaos. "Granny's got a goat! / Granny's got a goat!" Granny sits on a crate with pastel-colored laundry drying on the line behind her; she's looking down at a smiling white goat. But with the turn of the page, readers see "Not 1, not 2, / not 3, not 4, / but more and more / and more and more!" There are eight, in fact, beginning to engage in goatly shenanigans with the laundry. In a magnificent double-page spread, the count goes up by 10s: "20, 30, 40, 50… / Counting goats is getting nifty!" Ninety-nine goats cavort on the grass and trip-trap across the brightly colored tin-roofed homes in the background, chewing laundry, eating homework, and pooping with abandon. When Granny's 100th goat goes missing, the quest to retrieve it takes readers, Granny's many grandchildren, and the dignified Granny herself into a town that's clearly ready to say goodbye to the naughty goat. Atinuke's text rollicks while Hinds' illustrations urge readers to slow down to take in every delicious detail. Granny, kids, and community members are all Black, sporting clothes in bright Caribbean colors. Great goatish fun.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
