A middling reinvention of “The Three Little Pigs” for fans of barbecue and classic villains.
The big bad wolf has some new tricks up his sleeve in Meyer’s children’s book.
The Big Bad Wolf is planning a luau. A party couldn’t be further from the minds of Oinky, Pinky, and Stinky, though—they’re just three little pigs with houses to build from straw, sticks, and bricks, respectively, and no formal invitation to any gatherings. The Big Bad Wolf, however, is planning roast pig as the main dish for his evening with his friends. Oinky’s flimsy straw house is the first to fall to his huffing and puffing. “He gathered up Oinky, and all of the straw, / Then continued his scheme, without a flaw.” Pinky’s home is no sturdier, but Stinky’s den takes longer to breach; as readers familiar with the classic fairy tale may expect, the brick stands up to the wolf. But in this telling, there’s a twist: The wolf disguises himself as a grandmother to gain access, thus taking advantage of Stinky’s good nature. He carts all three of his victims back to his home, where he uses the building materials from their houses to build a fire pit. He slaughters the pigs off-page and barbecues them with plenty of savory sauce. When the luau begins, Alligator, Lion, Fox, and Bear are delighted by their meal and proceed to dance the evening away. Meyer serves up a creative but confusing new version of a very old story. Fans of classic villains may cheer for the Wolf’s long-thwarted victory, but this event robs the original fable of its moral about hard work without replacing it with anything else (aside from an example of the effectiveness of fraud). Meyer’s rhyming couplets help propel the reader through the story, which is supplemented by Fatkurahman’s cartoonlike illustrations; these are so full of energy that they feel as if they’re pulled from an animated short.
A middling reinvention of “The Three Little Pigs” for fans of barbecue and classic villains.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781965030028
Page Count: 74
Publisher: Seaside Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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