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
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
With wordplay reminiscent of Margie Palatini at her best, Helakoski takes four timorous chickens into, then out of, the literal and figurative woods. Fleeing the henhouse after catching sight of a wolf, the pusillanimous pullets come to a deep ditch: “ ‘What if we can’t jump that far?’ ‘What if we fall in the ditch?’ ‘What if we get sucked into the mud?’ The chickens tutted, putted, and flutted. They butted into themselves and each other, until one by one . . . ” they do fall in. But then they pick themselves up and struggle out. Ensuing encounters with cows and a lake furnish similar responses and outcomes; ultimately they tumble into the wolf’s very cave, where they “picked, pecked, and pocked. They ruffled, puffled, and shuffled. They shrieked, squeaked, and freaked, until . . . ” their nemesis scampers away in panic. Fluttering about in pop-eyed terror, the portly, partly clothed hens make comical figures in Cole’s sunny cartoons (as does the flummoxed wolf)—but the genuine triumph in their final strut—“ ‘I am a big, brave chicken,’ said one chicken. ‘Ohh . . . ’ said the others. ‘Me too.’ ‘Me three.’ ‘Me four’ ”—brings this tribute to chicken power to a rousing close. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-525-47575-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
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