Folktale purists will be driven looney tunes, but so what if the tone isn’t completely authentic—who doesn’t like to see a...
Not every folktale collection includes the words “BONK BONK BONK,” but they fit perfectly here.
This is the 21st century, and there’s a demographic sampling of readers who’ve grown up watching Warner Brothers cartoons and listening to Native American trickster tales. This book is for them. Looney Tunes fans will appreciate that Coyote falls off a cliff early in the story. Or, if the readers make a different choice, he’s attacked by wasps or eaten by a giant. The choose-your-own-adventure format allows readers to flip a few pages and sample generations’ worth of Coyote tales. (Thomas’ illustrations are somehow both slapstick and archetypal.) The problem, strangely enough, is that there aren’t enough stories here to fill the book. A segment might end with an inspired trick and an escape from Hill Monsters, or it might just peter out. One segment concludes with Coyote joining a pair of beavers for soup. Still, these 64 pages give readers an entertaining and even well-rounded look at Coyote’s personality: the trickster, fool and occasional wise man of tradition. Later books in the series have a more satisfying range of choices: Tricky Rabbit Tales, Tricky Monkey Tales and Tricky Raven Tales.
Folktale purists will be driven looney tunes, but so what if the tone isn’t completely authentic—who doesn’t like to see a coyote fall off a cliff? (Graphic novel. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7613-7859-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When evil, oversized alien rabbits land at Dingdale Elementary chool (the “S” has fallen off the sign so often that custodian Fuzzy Dustin refuses to fix it any more), it’s up to young Hercules Smith and his slobbery pooch Sheldon to save the Earth—or at least the student body—from being transformed into carrots. Luckily (or maybe not), a pair of the titular Wuv Bunnies, heavily armed with kisses and truly toxic jokes, arrive from the Outers Pace Galaxy to help out. Elliott and Long milk this premise for all it’s worth, dishing up a Captain Underpants–style mix of text and wild cartoons—the former well-stocked with authorial asides, the latter filled with big-toothed bunnies sporting antennae and high-fiving each other after each gag. Capped by a gratuitous barrage of extra jokes (“What did the duck say when she bought some lipstick? Just put it on my bill. HA! HA! HA! HA!”), this is all perfectly pitched to its audience and guaranteed to garner groans from the grown-ups. (Fantasy. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1902-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2008
Younger readers who prefer their tales of knightly valor straight up should eschew this droll, double-stranded import. Expressing doubts that King Alfred really burnt those cakes, or that Canute got wet feet, Wilson proceeds in paired cartoon panels to deliver a rhymed official rendition and a slangy factual account of how young Dave the peasant drove a fearsome beast out of Princess Peach’s bedchamber—thus, naturally, earning her hand in marriage. Dave’s quick-thinking mother expedites the process, determining that the “horrid creature” squeaks and is fond of cheese, but persuading the suspicious King Arfwitt and Queen Girdlestein that it’s a dragon nonetheless, then letting nature take its course with the young folk. Wilson outfits every character with eyeglasses, “arms” Dave with a wooden sword and a bucket for a helmet (“you look a right wally,” his mom observes), and encloses verses, dialogue and the frequent asides in balloons. Children trained to expect action on every page may find the episode a bit wordy and slow-going, but there’s certainly food for thought here, as well as an amiable, silly story. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-84507-496-3
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
