A modest but appealing picture book that combines simple storytelling and empowering messages with unforced charm.
In the first of a planned series, Odiwo offers gentle lessons in character building through the adventures of a talking, mischief-minded little pig.
Six-year-old Porsché Porscha the pink pig, so named because her mother “thought her newborn piglet looked like the most beautiful pink Porsche car she had ever seen,” isn’t like the other pigs on the farm. She can talk and so can her best friend, Wally the Goat. The curious little pig is always up for adventure, with reticent Wally in tow, and trouble often follows. For example, the friends are grounded after hitching a ride on a hay truck, and an encounter with a beehive leaves Porsché Porscha with a sore snout. In this debut children’s book by Odiwo (Blessings For My Child, 2009), kind Farmer Fiola is the grownup, delivering gentle lessons in good manners and honesty, as well as a between-the-lines message about the rewards of reading. Farmer Fiola scolds Porsché Porscha for taking a piece of pie without asking; but she praises her for telling the truth about it, and reminds her to wash her hooves before eating dinner. She treats Porsché Porscha’s bee sting, buys her a book about bees, and they “read together” at bedtime, while the little pig learns “a lot about bees and what not to do around them.” And while this is certainly not a book about real-life pigs, the author lightly weaves a few facts about them into her narrative. Porsché Porscha says that her feet are called trotters, for example, and her nose is a snout. When she disdains wallowing in the mud, Farmer Fiola points out that because pigs don’t sweat, mud helps them stay cool. (Porsché Porscha’s solution is a nice clean pool for soaking.) The story’s idyllic farm setting and quirky characters are pleasantly realized in cartoonlike, full-page digital illustrations, complemented by large text against blue, yellow, and green backgrounds with a subtle pig-foot motif.
A modest but appealing picture book that combines simple storytelling and empowering messages with unforced charm.Pub Date: Dec. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1500562519
Page Count: 44
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Charming.
An assortment of unusual characters form friendships and help each other become their best selves.
Mr. and Mrs. Tupper, who live at Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, are antiquarians. Their daughter, Jillian, loves and cares for a plant named Ivy, who has “three speckles on each leaf and three letters in her name.” Toasty, the grumpy goldfish, lives in an octagonal tank and wishes he were Jillian’s favorite; when Arthur the spider arrives inside an antique desk, he brings wisdom and insight. Ollie the violet plant, Louise the bee, and Sunny the canary each arrive with their own quirks and problems to solve. Each character has a distinct personality and perspective; sometimes they clash, but more often they learn to empathize, see each other’s points of view, and work to help one another. They also help the Tupper family with bills and a burglar. The Fan brothers’ soft-edged, old-fashioned, black-and-white illustrations depict Toasty and Arthur with tiny hats; Ivy and Ollie have facial expressions on their plant pots. The Tuppers have paper-white skin and dark hair. The story comes together like a recipe: Simple ingredients combine, transform, and rise into something wonderful. In its matter-of-fact wisdom, rich vocabulary (often defined within the text), hint of magic, and empathetic nonhuman characters who solve problems in creative ways, this delightful work is reminiscent of Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo, and Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord and Stephanie Graegin.
Charming. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781665942485
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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