Though not quite the elephant-folio size of Almost Everything (2005) and Zoo-ology (2003), this new Jolivet still probably won’t fit into most oversize sections—but it should be just as popular with children. Slipping several math problems into his narrative, Fromental saddles an unsuspecting family with the daily arrival of a new penguin in the mail. The charm wears away as the weeks and months pass, however, and the smell of old fish (etcetera!) begins to become as compelling an issue as the overcrowding. Using a limited palette of mostly blue, bright orange and black, Jolivet creates lively silk-screened scenes featuring frantic family members struggling to cope with increasing flocks of small, toy-like, irresistibly cute penguins. At last, New Year’s Eve arrives, as does Uncle Victor the ecologist, who explains that he’s engaged in an effort to shift the beleaguered (though not endangered there, despite his claim) birds from the South to the North Pole in hopes of giving them a better chance of survival. Off he drives with the lot (except one), but then the next day brings a bigger box, with a considerably more problematic resident. A comic episode equally suited to sharing with one child or a lunchroom full of children. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8109-4460-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2006
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
With wordplay reminiscent of Margie Palatini at her best, Helakoski takes four timorous chickens into, then out of, the literal and figurative woods. Fleeing the henhouse after catching sight of a wolf, the pusillanimous pullets come to a deep ditch: “ ‘What if we can’t jump that far?’ ‘What if we fall in the ditch?’ ‘What if we get sucked into the mud?’ The chickens tutted, putted, and flutted. They butted into themselves and each other, until one by one . . . ” they do fall in. But then they pick themselves up and struggle out. Ensuing encounters with cows and a lake furnish similar responses and outcomes; ultimately they tumble into the wolf’s very cave, where they “picked, pecked, and pocked. They ruffled, puffled, and shuffled. They shrieked, squeaked, and freaked, until . . . ” their nemesis scampers away in panic. Fluttering about in pop-eyed terror, the portly, partly clothed hens make comical figures in Cole’s sunny cartoons (as does the flummoxed wolf)—but the genuine triumph in their final strut—“ ‘I am a big, brave chicken,’ said one chicken. ‘Ohh . . . ’ said the others. ‘Me too.’ ‘Me three.’ ‘Me four’ ”—brings this tribute to chicken power to a rousing close. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-525-47575-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2005
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