Sweet illustrations and an updated ending to an old fable allow the moral to come through without the conflicts of earlier...
On a very hot day, an elephant wanders into a barn and has a nap. Excited to finally see an elephant up close, the farmer calls in his family, who call in neighbors to see the magnificent animal.
Six blind mice are roused from sleep by an unfamiliar scent, and they follow it until they catch scent of a cat. They hide, listening to the gathered humans marvel about this “elephant,” and when the people leave, they follow the scent again. As the mice each find a different part of the elephant, they all describe what they’ve felt as if it were the whole elephant. By now, the elephant is awake and explains that they’re all “a little bit right,” but they’ve each described parts of a whole elephant. It drifts off to sleep, and the mice tiptoe back home, squeaking about what they’ve learned. In a note, Daly explains that her book is based on the 19th-century poem by John Godfrey Saxe, itself based on an ancient Indian fable told by Buddhists, Jains, and others (and retold in many picture books before this), but Daly has added an ending so the mice learn the whole truth. Daly’s soft acrylic illustrations use golden colors for what look to be the savannas of southern Africa, and in the one scene with people, they’re depicted as black, with colorful, modern clothing. Each cute mouse is a different color, with small black eyes, and the elephant wears a serene, benevolent expression.
Sweet illustrations and an updated ending to an old fable allow the moral to come through without the conflicts of earlier versions. Lovely. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-91095-942-8
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Otter-Barry
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
This provides both a fairly high cute factor and hard evidence that big brothers tend to be the same everywhere.
A big brother allows the baby sitter to misunderstand his little sister in this Scottish import.
Small Jessie is just learning words, and when she says “please” it sounds just like PEAS. Mum and Dad are off to a ceilidh (Dad's in his kilt and Mum's in her dancing boots), and they tell Rachel, the baby sitter, to give Jessie anything she asks for, as she is just getting over a cold. So when she asks for “Orange juice peas” Rachel gamely finds some leftover cooked peas in the fridge and drops a few in the juice. Jessie is not pleased, and she asks for a “Boon peas!” Ben translates “spoon” but not the other, so Jessie gets a spoon with peas, which she uses to get the peas out of her juice. Alas, though, now the orange juice tastes of peas. “Yack!” says Jessie. This continues. While Ben tries to hold in his giggles, Jessie grows ever more frustrated, and Rachel gets increasingly mystified. There are peas all over the place. Finally, Ben explains that Jessie means “please,” not that she wants peas with everything. The cheerful and individualized characters, bright surroundings and patterned fabric-collage effects make for winning pages, and the use of British/Scots terms are easily understood in context.
This provides both a fairly high cute factor and hard evidence that big brothers tend to be the same everywhere. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-86315-872-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
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A sweet sentiment and a great way to get kids pumped about school and learning—Miss Frizzle would be proud.
North and Hall pair up for another imaginative what-if offering (Because I Am Your Daddy, 2010, etc.), this time introducing young readers to different modes of transportation.
A tiny (four-student) multicultural class armchair-journeys with their teacher: “If we had a chopper, we would soar above the cone / of a rumbling volcano as it churns out liquid stone.” Camels would allow the students to see the Egyptian pyramids, and an airboat would be the perfect way to see the Everglades. But this class isn’t afraid to use their own muscles—cross-country skiing in Antarctica, hang gliding in the Outback and kayaking the Grand Canyon. Among others, the adventures include hot air ballooning over China’s Great Wall, seeing Venice by gondola and blasting off in a rocket ship into space. North sticks to the format of the two previous titles, missing the rhythm and rhyme in only a few spots. But she neglects the perfect opportunity to plug reading as the way to see the world, instead ending with, “Our classroom is our vessel, / always headed someplace new. // Because you are our teacher, / We’ll see the world with you.” Hall’s watercolors capture the essential elements of each destination, colors, textures and movement matching the natural world, and a comical mouse that appears in each illustration gives readers something to search for.
A sweet sentiment and a great way to get kids pumped about school and learning—Miss Frizzle would be proud. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0385-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
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