It won't set your hair on fire, but it's a story that exudes its own dry warmth. (Picture book. 3-7)
A modest tale of a Bigfoot.
Larf is one of those large, hairy, bipedal, apelike cryptids commonly known to humanoids as Sasquatch or Bigfoot. He is a retiring soul—as, evidently, are most Bigfeet. He lives deep in the northern forest with his pet rabbit, Eric, who is one of the more droll creatures—all deadpan, pop-eyed diminutiveness—to inhabit recent picture books. Larf thinks he is one-of-a-kind, but he reads that another Sasquatch is making an appearance in a nearby town. Fascinated, yet harboring the standard run of trepidations when about to meet a potential friend, he dons a minimalist disguise and shows up at the appointed time, only to learn that the Sasquatch is just a guy in costume ("It was all a BIG FAKE"). But someone else has appeared to meet that same Bigfoot, and, who knows, maybe there'll be a Littlefoot in a baby carriage. Spires hits squarely a number of nails here—not least that people wouldn't recognize a Bigfoot right under their collective noses—and her watercolor-and-ink artworks fairly captures the far-north woodlands and the enjoyably kooky characters of her tale.
It won't set your hair on fire, but it's a story that exudes its own dry warmth. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55453-701-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even children who, like William, are "switched on like a light" when bedtime rolls around will drift off as the "train that goes to tomorrow" fills up with drowsy travelers: "Teachers and jugglers, sacks, cats, and packages, piglets in baskets and babies in bundles." William's fellow passengers have exaggeratedly wide middles and tiny extremities, as if viewed in a funhouse mirror, but the distortion is more comic than eerie, and suits the illustrations' curves and slanting perspectives to a "Z." Each car features a different arrangement of picture and words: sometimes text runs around the outside, sometimes it separates two-thirds from the rest, occasionally it rests on top of the illustration, and once it is even in the smoke of the train in a full-bleed spread. The train starts up at last; William cuddles close to his mother, listening to her heart and closing his wide eyes. Here they are flanked by a swooping train on the track, as the seat becomes a pasture. The engineer in his nightgown and stocking cap stands at the throttle as the train is "filling the world with billows of steam, soft see-through clouds that turn into dreams." Then suddenly it's coming into the station beneath a rising sun. A truly memorable ride, this ticket to dreamland will be good for many repeated trips. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 21, 2001
ISBN: 0-374-38437-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
Legions of parents and preschoolers across the land adore the baby bunny in starry pajamas (and the anti-materialistic sentiments) in Long’s bestselling Hush Little Baby (1997). Now the baby bunny and his parents are ready to celebrate a simple Christmas bunny-style to the words of the traditional carol, “Deck the Halls” (here changed to just one hall in the smaller rabbit household). Each left-hand page includes one line of the song with the requisite number of “Fa-la-la’s” accompanied by a small square illustration of a holiday decoration or one of the rabbit family. On each facing page is a full illustration of the bunnies decorating their house, donning their gay apparel, trolling ancient yuletide carols, and snuggling together in front of the Yule log. On Christmas day they go skating with the little bunny’s new skates, singing and playing outside “heedless of the wind and weather.” On a particularly endearing page describing yuletide treasure, the smaller illustration shows the binding of this Deck the Hall book on a shelf of Christmas titles (look closely to see a glimpse of Santa Bunny in the background). In the larger illustration the bunny family is reading the book together, with Mom and Dad in cozy bathrobes and baby in his famous starry pj’s. A yuletide treasure indeed, for Christmas gift-giving and for quick sing-alongs in story hours and before bedtime. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8118-2821-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
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