Will adults really enjoy these forgettable verses inspired by Dickey's grandson? "He shot the two-horned rhino with his double-barreled gun,/ He shot the dusty python for sleeping in the sun. . . . He shot the mountainous King-Kong, whom everybody knows?/ He was holding up a kicking girl, and pulling off her clothes. . . . And he shot EVERYTHING there was, but they weren't really DEAD!/ all summer, winter, spring and fall he shot them in his bed." Suburban nighttime exploits then, with some allusive touches but without Sendak's subtle, underlying poise, and upon mother's arrival, with an obvious, comforting conclusion: the beasts sing, mother sings, sleep comes. Five-year-old Tucky's bedroom-safe adventures are hardly big game—kind of slippery for children, too slight for adults—and Marie Angel's delicate illustrations, always elegant and frequently striking, are mismatched to the mock-serious tone of the poem. Milne carried it off but Tucky, failing to resonate, remains Grandpa's loving trifle.
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 1978
ISBN: 0517532581
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1978
BOOK REVIEW
In her first children's book, Parton (the country music star) turns one of her songs into a saccharine tale about a girl who is so poor that her mama has to sew her a patchwork coat when the weather turns cold. (Joseph and his coat of many colors are mentioned but never explained.) Despite the girl's love for her coat, she is teased in school, which she counters by trying to explain to her classmates ``that one is only poor/if they choose to be.'' The logic here is as flawed as the grammar, and Sutton's illustrations, while competent, show a well-dressed, happy rural family who look anything but poor. The text is both clumsy and irrelevent (it ends with ``Through life I've remained happy/and good luck is on my side./I have everything that anyone/could ever want from life.'') An apparently autobiographical song that has a hard time standing on its own as a compelling children's story. (Picture book. All ages)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-023413-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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