It’s baaaaad news for the sheep when Farmer Brown (The Thing That Bothered Farmer Brown, 1995) brings out the shears. (“Clip-clip, buzz-buzz, / He took their wool and left them fuzz.”) Oblivious to the shorn and shivering flock trotting along behind, Farmer Brown cheerfully hauls away bags of fleece to be washed, carded, spun, and dyed. (“From fleece to yarn, it stretched and changed— / ‘Baaa!’ they cried. ‘Our wool looks strange!’ ”) Only when the sheep nerve themselves to snatch the skeins does Farmer Brown become aware of their plight and, proving himself as adept with knitting needles as with those shears, he fashions brightly colored cardigans for all. (Picture the shivering sheep standing on the porch, serving as spool for the threads of yarn.) Like several books, from Tomie dePaola’s Charlie Needs a Cloak (1973) to Robyn Eversole’s Red Berry Wool (1999), this will give readers at least a sense of how wool gets from sheep to sweater. But with Sloat’s frisky rhymed text and Westcott’s sunny watercolor cartoons, it’s even more clearly a breezy lesson in compassion. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7894-2637-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip. The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface. Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Floyd and Denise update “The Tortoise and the Hare” for primary readers, captioning each soft-focus, semi-rural scene with a short, simple sentence or two. Rabbit proposes running to school, while his friend Turtle takes the bus: no contest at first, as the bus makes stop after deliberate stop, but because Rabbit pauses at a pushcart for a snack, a fresh-looking Turtle greets his panting, disheveled friend on the school steps. There is no explicit moral, but children will get the point—and go on to enjoy Margery Cuyler’s longer and wilder Road Signs: A Harey Race with a Tortoise (p. 957). (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-202679-7
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
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