A family of small folks—bowler-hatted, Ziggy-like people—lives in the roots of a tree. One day a human-sized couple drives up in a shiny red vintage car called Ruby and has a picnic. Seeing a year's worth of food in the open picnic basket, tiny Kevin goes scavenging. He gets trapped in the basket, so the rest of the diminutive family climbs onto the car in an effort to save him. They end up in the big people's garage, where Kevin is now stuck in a locked briefcase. They try every number they can think of until George, Kevin's father, realizes that the combination must be Ruby's license plate number. As the little people search for the lock combination, the reader is looking for the license plate number—a challenge set forth by the author at the start of the book. The game is fun, and will continue to be even after the gimmick—a sweepstakes in which readers can win the real Ruby—is over. The joy here is in Thompson's (Pictures of Home, 1993, etc.) wacky drawings, which are filled with delicious details for adults (like book titles such as ``Nihilism for Beginners,'' and The Wholefood Players' ``La Belle Dame Sans Meusli''). Ruby's history is followed pictorially along the top of each page, making this two wonderful picture books in one. (Fiction/Picture book. All ages)
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-86744-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In her first children's book, Parton (the country music star) turns one of her songs into a saccharine tale about a girl who is so poor that her mama has to sew her a patchwork coat when the weather turns cold. (Joseph and his coat of many colors are mentioned but never explained.) Despite the girl's love for her coat, she is teased in school, which she counters by trying to explain to her classmates ``that one is only poor/if they choose to be.'' The logic here is as flawed as the grammar, and Sutton's illustrations, while competent, show a well-dressed, happy rural family who look anything but poor. The text is both clumsy and irrelevent (it ends with ``Through life I've remained happy/and good luck is on my side./I have everything that anyone/could ever want from life.'') An apparently autobiographical song that has a hard time standing on its own as a compelling children's story. (Picture book. All ages)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-023413-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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