A welcome retelling, particularly suited for reading aloud to groups.
A sassy gordita attempts to outwit a bevy of desert creatures in this retelling of "The Gingerbread Man."
Ketteman and Terry (The Three Little Gators, 2009) reteam for this cumulative tale centered on the escapades of a fleet-footed, deep-fried corn cake. From her humble beginnings in the oven of Araña (spider), Señorita Gordita sets off across the Southwestern desert, besting the spider, a lizard, a rattlesnake, a scorpion, a javalina and a coyote. All of these animals are eager to enjoy a taste of the feisty, chatty snack, but “with a flip and a skip and a zip-zoom-zip,” Señorita Gordita manages to escape them all. When she arrives at the saguaro where Búho (owl) awaits, she may have finally met her match. The author introduces young readers to Spanish vocabulary through desert geography, flora and fauna, including all of the animals in the tale. Although saguaros and regional clichés abound, the illustrator’s use of brilliant colors and humor will hold the attention of younger and older readers, as will Señorita Gordita’s parting words to each of the animals she escapes. The author’s inclusion of a recipe for gorditas rectifies the story’s abrupt ending.
A welcome retelling, particularly suited for reading aloud to groups. (Spanish glossary, recipe) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8075-7302-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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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