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Sir Pigglesworth's Adventures in San Juan, PR

From the Sir Pigglesworth Adventure Series series , Vol. 7

A charming, frothy tale of a piglet’s antics in the tropics.

A porcine traveler visits another scenic locale for sunny thrills and a little bit of mischief in this seventh installment of a chapter book series.

Sir Pigglesworth and his family head to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ever excitable, Sir eagerly plans to enjoy snorkeling and swimming and soak up everything that the island has to offer. Imagine his surprise and delight when he runs into his old friends JoAnn and Bill in San Juan, too. They are there for a visit; JoAnn lived in the city as a child. Together, JoAnn, Bill, and Sir snorkel (the piglet is convinced a shark is out to get him, but it’s only a rock) and surf, and they even read to the children at JoAnn’s old school. They also savor sites like La Coca Falls, Old San Juan, and the El Yunque rain forest, and eat a delicious meal of rice and beans, chicken, and flan. But Sir gets into more trouble than he should—chasing animals, convincing himself that there are real-life butterflies in his stomach, and nearly knocking over an entire display of dresses. By the time he’s ready to give the graduation speech at a university (the whole point of his trip to Puerto Rico), he’s enjoyed many escapades—even though he failed to finally catch a lurking iguana. Seven books into this series, authors Wagner and Dean and illustrator Darchicourt (Sir Pigglesworth’s Adventures in Bermuda, 2016, etc.) have concocted even more capers for the main character. The authors’ vivid descriptions and depth of knowledge concerning Puerto Rico enhance the tale—thanks to the piglet’s exploits, families will likely be booking vacations there soon. This volume is part children’s story, part sightseeing guide. Some of Sir’s pranks read as a bit too silly. But it’s all in fun, and readers should have a fine time. The images bring a great deal of color to the story, especially when depicting the rain forest and the island’s assorted creatures. One caveat, though, involves how Darchicourt draws the characters of JoAnn and Bill. Meant to resemble Wagner and her husband, the illustrations look like caricatures, and they don’t really blend with the cartoon aspect of the rest of the pictures. But ultimately, Sir’s latest installment is an entertaining one that fans of the series should want to read. 

A charming, frothy tale of a piglet’s antics in the tropics.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Sir Pigglesworth Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016

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WRECKING BALL

From the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series , Vol. 14

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.

The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.

When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.

Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Amulet/Abrams

Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S CHRISTMAS

Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...

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The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.

The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.

Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3

Page Count: 24

Publisher: HMH Books

Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014

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