Fee fi fo fum / A merry old tale that’s No. 1! (Picture book. 4-7)
An oversized gourmand with a penchant for little children has a change of heart (and stomach).
Who could blame the Giant of Jum for eyeing his daily fare of broccoli with more than a modicum of distaste? Inspired by “Jack and the Beanstalk” (and conveniently forgetting the ending), the giant sets out to fill his tum with tots. Yet each time he encounters potential prey, they end up getting him to help them fetch their ball, save their cat from a tree, and so on. When he finally meets a boy named Jack, his proclamation that he intends to devour the lad is met with skepticism on the part of the other kids. They hand over a massive cake they’ve special ordered for him in thanks, and the giant comes away with the undeniable realization that “Chocolate’s much better than children!” The cadence of the lines dances on the pages, perfectly playing off the old “Fee Fi Fo Fum” rhymes with eloquence and aplomb. Fully embracing the spirit of the enterprise, Davies has a great deal of fun with the images, filling their corners with animals hiding not-so-cleverly from the perpetually hungry ogre. The giant himself never crosses over into the truly scary; he is depicted as a gargantuan white man with a house for a hat. The children are a multiracial crew.
Fee fi fo fum / A merry old tale that’s No. 1! (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62779-515-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A small girl searches for magic across bright red and blue pages. She muses about where fantastical beings are, and as she does so, each appears on the page attempting and repeatedly failing to get the girl’s attention. Kelly chooses a rhyming text sure to engage young readers, and Collins’s illustrations do their part. When she asks, “Where is the fairy who will grant me a wish,” the fairy is shown tugging the girl’s hair. “And what happened to mermaids? Did they turn into fish?”—a mermaid swims directly under the girl’s fishing net. As the wonderings include a flying broomstick, genie and goblins, the illustrations depict the exasperated creatures collecting, following the girl across each spread in ever-more-desperate efforts to prove they exist. Bright yellow pixies cause commotion in the kitchen, and a striped pastel-purple dragon curves from the fireplace breathing golden fire. Just when the girl decides “if there ever was magic, / it’s / all / leaked / away,” she realizes that magic is her power of imagination. Make sure to experience this ebullient celebration. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4022-4270-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
Even children who, like William, are "switched on like a light" when bedtime rolls around will drift off as the "train that goes to tomorrow" fills up with drowsy travelers: "Teachers and jugglers, sacks, cats, and packages, piglets in baskets and babies in bundles." William's fellow passengers have exaggeratedly wide middles and tiny extremities, as if viewed in a funhouse mirror, but the distortion is more comic than eerie, and suits the illustrations' curves and slanting perspectives to a "Z." Each car features a different arrangement of picture and words: sometimes text runs around the outside, sometimes it separates two-thirds from the rest, occasionally it rests on top of the illustration, and once it is even in the smoke of the train in a full-bleed spread. The train starts up at last; William cuddles close to his mother, listening to her heart and closing his wide eyes. Here they are flanked by a swooping train on the track, as the seat becomes a pasture. The engineer in his nightgown and stocking cap stands at the throttle as the train is "filling the world with billows of steam, soft see-through clouds that turn into dreams." Then suddenly it's coming into the station beneath a rising sun. A truly memorable ride, this ticket to dreamland will be good for many repeated trips. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 21, 2001
ISBN: 0-374-38437-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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