Little Miss Muffet turns a series of familiar nursery rhymes on their heads when, sick of that scary spider, she escapes into the pages of the book to find a new rhyme. But the Grand Old Duke of York marches too much, getting water with Jack and Jill gives her a headache and she gets all wet sharing a page with Johnny Flynn and Tommy Stout. While Miss Muffet rather enjoys running with the spoon, the dish feels somewhat put out and raises a fuss, which spills over onto the other pages. In the ensuing chaos, Miss Muffet tiptoes back to her familiar rhyme. Williamson’s signature style uses combinations of basic shapes to create her characters. Bold colors and patterns and a typeface that echoes the action complete the effect, creating a visually busy tableau in which the nursery-rhyme characters run amok. Reminiscent of the craziness of Jane Breskin Zalben’s Hey, Mama Goose, illustrated by Emilie Chollat (2004), and Alison Jackson’s If the Shoe Fits, illustrated by Karla Firehammer (2001), this fits the genre with zany precision. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-58925-080-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Spidery good fun with a can-do message.
This book that combines nursery rhymes and folk songs about spiders with a first-day-of-school story about not giving up offers a little something for everyone.
Itzy Bitzy is not fond of his nickname. In fact, he is looking forward to his first day of spindergarten just so he can reinvent himself. But his big brother, Gutzy, isn’t helping. “Only spiderlings bring lunch boxes.” Determined to not be Itzy Bitzy anymore, Itzy purposefully “forgets” his lunch and his raincoat. But his lunch-catching web-spinning does not go well. A girl on a tuffet scares away the first fly he spies, an old woman swallows the second (along with Itzy!), and Itzy’s interrupted while making his third web by a cry for help from the waterspout. Proving his web-making prowess in more than one way, Itzy saves the day and has lunch to boot, and in the end, he doesn’t feel “one bit bitsy.” Pizzoli’s spiders manage to convey emotion through body posture, dot eyes and line mouths. The pencil, India ink, Plaka paint and Photoshop illustrations feature cartoon details against pastel, retro-type backgrounds. While appealing, they don’t quite match the tone of the text, and it can take some close looking to make out some of the details. Readers familiar with the allusions likely won’t care, though, as it’s so much fun to see old favorites in new tales.
Spidery good fun with a can-do message. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5811-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Genuinely clever.
Noir whodunit in the land of Mother Goose.
When Jack loses his crown after falling down that hill, who better to crack the case than hard-boiled Joe Dumpty, private eye? (Joe made his rep by solving the mystery surrounding his brother in What REALLY Happened to Humpty?, 2009.) Jill leaps over the yellow crime-scene tape to meet him at the hill. Jack's eyes look like pinwheels as he tells Joe what he remembers; dizzy Jill can't add much more. Spider goes over the crime scene with a fine-tooth comb...literally! Joe visits the Sprats, who are fighting; could it be about the crown? Jack B. Nimble is on crutches; he fell while practicing his candle-jumping. He's an unlikely suspect. And in the house that Jack built, "Goldy" describes a suspicious encounter with the Muffin Man. Joe grills this sailor-suited gourmand, who implicates yet another Jack, the one who went up the beanstalk. While Joe visits this sulky Jack, Spider takes a trip up the beanstalk to talk to the giant. Between them, they solve the crime, and just in time. Joe and Spider can tackle their next case: The cow has jumped over the moon and hasn't been seen since. The pun-packed yarn may go over the heads of younger readers, but their grown-ups will chuckle, and everyone will enjoy the impish twists on familiar images in Axelsen's Photoshop illustrations.
Genuinely clever. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58089-552-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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