Humorous, action-packed pictures combine with terse text to create an engaging cautionary tale about greed.
Five hungry cats vie for one “yummy, scrummy sausage.”
With a limited autumnal color palette, the cats and the owner’s home are realized in rough but expressive fashion. The text is short, with many onomatopoeic sounds and easy words enabling children to read much of it themselves. The five cats are distinct in color and variously accessorized, allowing readers to distinguish them and assign gender as they choose. The plot essentially consists of the golden-haired cat’s titular assertion of ownership and defense of the meat product as each of the other four attempts to steal it in various slapstick schemes. Astute viewers will notice a spotted, brown shape in the corner of a scene showing a living-room floor littered with mouse traps and Lego blocks with yarn tangled all about. These are all booby traps for the four cats trying to steal the sausage, wrapped with a small string, from under its protective dome. The black cat springs into action, makes it through the minefield, and almost gets the sausage only to have it yanked away by the gold cat once again. The greedy kitty prepares to gobble the treat down but is stormed by the others, causing the sausage to bounce out of the cat’s mouth and go right in the open mouth of—a large brown, spotted dog.
Humorous, action-packed pictures combine with terse text to create an engaging cautionary tale about greed. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-84886-473-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Maverick Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too many bugs, figuratively.
Lucy, “the youngest member of a family of fireflies,” must overcome an irrational, moon-induced anxiety in order to leave her family tree trunk and glow.
The first six pages pull readers into a lush, beautiful world of nighttime: “When the sun has set, silence falls over the Big Forest, and all of the nighttime animals wake up.” Mixed media provide an enchanting forest background, with stylized flora and fauna eventually illuminated by a large, benign moon, because the night “doesn’t like to catch them by surprise.” Turning the page catches readers by surprise, though: the family of fireflies is decidedly comical and silly-looking. Similarly, the text moves from a lulling, magical cadence to a distinct shift in mood as the bugs ready themselves for their foray into the night: “They wave their bottoms in the air, wiggle their feelers, take a deep, deep breath, and sing, ‘Here we go, it’s time to glow!’ ” It’s an acceptable change, but more unevenness follows. Lucy’s excitement about finally joining the other bugs turns to “sobbing” two nights in a row. Instead of directly linking her behavior to understandable reactions of children to newness, the text undermines itself by making Lucy’s parents’ sweet reassurances impotent and using the grandmother’s scientific explanation of moonlight as an unnecessary metaphor. Further detracting from the story, the text becomes ever denser and more complex over the book’s short span.
Too many bugs, figuratively. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-84-16147-00-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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