In this pointed episode, an apartment house’s residents are aghast when they learn that their new neighbor is a pig: as Henrietta Hen puts it to Doctor Fox and Nick Hare, “ ‘Everyone knows that pigs are messy and dirty and sloppy.’ ” As expected, the pig is soon spotted dropping firewood in the street, and flour and mud on the stairs, so, oblivious to the fact that he has also carefully cleaned it all up, the busybodies officiously knock on his door to deliver an ultimatum. Imagine their surprise when the apartment turns out to be clean and cozy, with a fire burning cheerily in the fireplace, cinnamon cookies in the oven, and a board game with small clay figures that the pig, who introduces himself as Theodore, has modeled after each of them. Fries does everything she can to take the sting out of this, from making the cast members animals so no racial or social group need be specified, to showing readers from the beginning that Theodore is a conscientious pig—who, moreover, shows no visible reaction to his neighbors’ assumptions, and quickly becomes an accepted member of their small community. Still, there’s a message here, and it’s plain enough that few readers, even younger ones, will miss it. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-531-30307-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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