A comic thriller of a folktale, rendered in a seamless narrative, illustrating the proverbial cleverness of the youngest brother. The king promises his sick daughter's hand to anyone who can find the peaches that will cure her. The oldest brother fails, the middle brother fails, but the youngest brother succeeds in producing three perfect May peaches—with help from an old woman, who also gives him a magic whistle. The whistle comes in handy when the greedy king tells the boy that he must tend one hundred rabbits for four days before he can marry the princess. Finally, the boy is given one last task: to fill a bucket with truth. This he does by ingenuity alone, thus winning the princess's hand. This typically French machinery of tricks and obstacles runs smoothly in the capable hands of DeFelice and DeMarsh; their narration never skips a beat. At the same time, they demonstrate ample appreciation of the story's scatological humor—perfectly timed dialogue and cliff- hanging page breaks dramatize the funniest, earthiest moments. These are slightly watered-down in the soft, vague watercolors, but Trivas has her own comic pace, and overall the book has a brightly exuberant look. It reads out loud beautifully. (Picture book/folklore. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-06872-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.
The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
The visuals take the cake, or rather the pie, in this folksy jaunt across the country. As a follow-up to the bestselling How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (1994), Priceman sticks with a more local focus. Here, readers take a nonsensical and roundabout journey in search of items to make a cherry pie. Hail a taxi in New York and go to “the corner of Pennsylvania and Ohio” for coal to make a pie pan, then to a cotton farm in Louisiana to make potholders, to New Mexico for clay to make a mixing bowl and so forth. Strangely, the ingredients for the actual pie are not on the shopping list, just the raw materials to make the cooking equipment. Though informational, the journey is filled with so many random distractions young readers may have a hard time sticking with it. The rustic, lush illustrations, however, are as delicious as a cherry pie right from the oven, and for readers who really want to make one, there’s a simple recipe included. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-375-81255-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
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