Hattie Hippo is fat. Not surprising, for a hippo, but apparently endlessly amusing. Or that’s what her creators presume. In four short vignettes, Hattie’s size plays the starring role. In “The Ballet,” Hattie twirls and leaps—and misses the two rhinos poised to catch her, landing off-stage (and off page) with, one assumes, an enormous thump. At “The Tea Party,” Hattie greedily gobbles down all the goodies, leaving her guests with none. In “The Swimming Pool,” after squeezing herself into an itsy-bitsy striped bikini, Hattie cannonballs into the blow-up pool and sends all the water splashing out. And in “Hide & Seek,” Hattie hides ineffectually behind various pieces of furniture before falling asleep under the table. Loomis’s jaunty rhymes and Neubecker’s cartoon-style illustrations obviously are intended to amuse. But Hattie is too much of a caricature for kids to connect to, and adults may not be able to get past the very likely unintentional fat-bashing. Disappointing. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-439-54340-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2006
The creators of Gabriella’s Song (1997) return with another robust heroine, who is in search of the elusive pink-headed duck. Young Agnes Peregrine, the world’s most talented bird caller, travels to the distant Himalayas, little knowing that close behind stalks nefarious Colonel Edwin Pittsnap, intent on adding a new trophy to his vast collection. Dressing Agnes and her mother, famed ornithologist Octavia Peregrine, in bloomers, high-button shoes and full, elegant dresses, Potter shows the intrepid birdwatchers in a variety of outdoorsy locales, and when the mustachioed villain at last appears, Agnes’s operatic clucks and whistles summon a horde of delicately detailed avian allies (labeled and described on the endpapers) to drive the birdnapper away. Having put in an appearance, the duck wings off, leaving an appreciative audience of two waving farewell. The end may fall a bit flat, but Agnes shows admirable spunk in the clutch, and children, bird lovers or not, will want to imitate her hoots and warbles. (Picture book. 6-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81471-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
Mary Veronica’s hopes of winning a gold ribbon at Friday’s pet fair soar when she comes upon an egg by the pond—a rotten egg, opines sister Mary Louise, or a dinosaur egg, suggests sister Mary Margaret. It’s a special egg, thinks Mary Veronica, carefully carrying it everywhere in a homemade nest. In spacious, soft-toned colored pencil illustrations, Yalowitz depicts neatly dressed, dot-eyed figures against mere suggestions of background; Mary Veronica’s attachment to the egg takes center stage, and pays off at the end. Children will be peeping (or quacking) in appreciation. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30134-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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