With an eye toward easy memorization, Katz gathers over 50 short poems from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Valerie Worth, Jack Prelutsky, and Lewis Carroll, to such anonymous gems as “The Burp”—“Pardon me for being rude. / It was not me, it was my food. / It got so lonely down below, / it just popped up to say hello.” Katz includes five of her own verses, and promotes an evident newcomer, Emily George, with four entries. Hafner surrounds every selection with fine-lined cartoons, mostly of animals and children engaged in play, reading, or other familiar activities. Amid the ranks of similar collections, this shiny-faced newcomer may not stand out—but neither will it drift to the bottom of the class. (Picture book/poetry. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47172-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2004
Sabuda’s interpretation of Mother Goose is a work of moving art, which necessitates that it also be treated like one. This isn’t a volume that will survive the wear and tear of many circulations; some of the paper parts have to be gently coaxed into position. However, the reward for handling with care is great; these feats of paper engineering not only illustrate nursery rhymes in three dimensions, but they also reinterpret them, e.g., “One, two,/Buckle my shoe” is reenvisioned as a woodpecker and a hen preparing for a night out. “Knock on the door” shows the earnest woodpecker tapping on the front entrance with his beak, while “Pick up sticks” shows the hen choosing her lipstick. Glorious colors and elaborate configurations of blackbirds bursting out of pies and peacocks fanning their feathers make this an exhibition of paper prowess that’s unforgettable. (Pop-up. 4-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81192-6
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
Some silly variations on the fates of familiar nursery rhyme characters add cheap laughs to traditional Mother Goose tales. Greenberg proposes that after Humpty’s great fall, he almost became a giant omelet, but was accidentally splattered on the kitchen wall instead. Mother Goose and her gander “both went/up to heaven/After colliding with a/747!” Peter Pumpkin Eater’s wife gets her revenge by sticking her husband in a loaf of bread. Sending up Mother Goose can be rewarding, but it’s never easy; the author, with little of the grace or beat of the originals, twists many tales with trendy, explicitly gross humor, e.g., Jack Spratt and his wife lick not only the platter clean, but a city bus, the dog’s nose, and a garbage truck. The illustrations, despite their giddiness, have a decidedly old-fashioned feel, demonstrating Schindler’s facility with nursery rhyme characterizations in finely inked cross-hatchings. (Picture book. 4-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-32767-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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