A heat wave compels an industrious community of island piggies to build a giant ship, complete with masts and rigging, and voyage to retrieve an Arctic iceberg and cool off. Why is this wooden boat airborne, tethered to an enormous balloon? Welcome to Geisert’s peculiar porcine province! This wordless picture book, full of intricate color etchings, invites readers to loosen up and enjoy a story that makes no sense at all. Some will immediately giggle (clothed pigs frolicking in a pool of iceberg ice-cubes! Ha!), savor myriad quirky details (check out the pigs’ funky angular houses—with skylights!) and expand upon Geisert’s unfettered imagination (how did they get on that little sandy island? a shipwreck?). Many young readers might find the whole foray too inexplicable, too weird and offering too little action. Pigs set up a fan in front of the Arctic ice cube to get some AC at the end...great. Others will simply connect happily with the cheerful can-do attitude of the pigs—whether or not it makes any sense, the last image, of a large pig family enjoying ice water as a cool breeze blows in, two little piggies barely visible under the table, charms. Geisert’s meticulous illustrations won’t amuse everyone, but they certainly conjure a fully realized piggy world—an island at home with itself, floating way out there in the ocean. (Picture book. 4-10)
Pub Date: April 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59270-098-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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