Young Arnie regales his mother with a kitchen-table report on his first-grade trip to the aquarium—``The deadly squid can squeeze a whale juiceless!'' As in his Never Spit On Your Shoes (1990), Cazet's homey illustrations hilariously fill in details Arnie leaves out; held—barely—in check by their teacher and a host of parent helpers, the children (small animals in human dress, one speaking only Spanish) rattle on about the tanks and displays as they pursue their own concerns, their authentic-sounding comments and queries in square balloons. Though those accustomed to Cazet's usually sensitive brand of comedy may wince at the tank of big-nosed ``Gefilte Fish,'' there's plenty of less jarring humor here for readers of all ages. ``I'm glad you had a good day,'' Mom comments, and Arnie replies, ``I think the teacher did, too. She went home early.'' (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-531-05451-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992
Required reading for all children who have ever grumbled that "grownups get to have all the fun." Once they realize, through this litany, that "grown-ups have aches and pains. . . . can take out their teeth . . . snore . . . get headaches . . . wrinkles" and ". . . take a lot of pills," they may want to stay children forever. Adults are also "mean . . . rude . . . cheapskates" who "hate to pay their taxes" but "like to punish people." Steig moderates his venting in the full-page cartoons, rendered with characteristic simplicity; the grownups are seen as slightly foolish figures whose foibles amuse — or only slightly annoy — the children around them. Reductio ad absurdum, of course, and if the relentlessness of the mockery grates, the clever ways the illustrations elaborate on the generalizations should elicit a few chuckles. Even minor Steig is memorable. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-205080-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
The tales of Wilhelm Hauff (18021827)—almost unknown in the U.S.—belong on every child's shelf. Shepard retells ``The Caliph Stork,'' a stylized imitation of the Arabian Nights that has become a part of Middle Eastern folklore. A merchant sells the Calif[sic] of Baghdad a magic snuffbox, which contains a powder that transforms him and his vizier into storks. But the magic word that is to turn them back into humans has no effect, and they find themselves trapped in their new forms. Wandering through the woods, the two storks meet a woodpecker who tells them that she is a princess put under the spell by a sorcerer. When they follow her to the sorcerer's hide-out, they discover that he is none other than the merchant who sold them the snuffbox. They overhear him bragging about his trick, whereupon he reveals the real magic word that will transform them. The Gothic overtones of Hauff's KunstmÑrchen have been removed in Shepard's simplified version (for example, in the original, the storks more tragically forget the magic word), but the story still works. In his first work, Dianov, with rich, ornately three- dimensional watercolors, displays his sensitivity to the oriental charms of the tale, paying as much attention to the details of costume and architecture as to the characters themselves. Everything has a cartoon-like plasticity, or unrealness; his colorful pictures, full of beards, turbans, and minarets, look as if they were made out of candy. (Picture book/folklore. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 24, 1995
ISBN: 0-395-65377-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
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