His social standing having been restored in Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf (2007), the old folktale bad guy is invited back to the library—this time to tell the story of “The Three Little Pigs.” Overcoming his understandable reluctance after Rumpelstiltskin, fellow resident at the Villain Villa Senior Center, advises him to put his own spin on the episode, Wolf trots out a version involving unfortunate accidents and careless, aggressive pigs. Unfortunately, the aforementioned porkers are actually in the storytime audience, and before you can say “not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin,” they’re up in his face, demanding the truth and an apology. As before, Seibold supplies big, droll digitally painted scenes featuring a hangdog Wolf in a hideous orange plaid suit and a supporting cast of familiar characters from Pinocchio (“Isn’t that wolf’s snout getting longer?”) to the Little Engine (“I think it is. I think it is”). In the end Wolf tootles off hinting that there may be future “Fairy Tales Remodeled.” That’s good news, as all fans of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and its teeming clan will agree. (Picture book/folktale/spoof. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-375-85620-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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A lad finds a penguin on his doorstep and resolutely sets out to return it in this briefly told import.
Eventually, he ends up rowing it all the way back to Antarctica, braving waves and storms, filling in the time by telling it stories. But then, feeling lonely after he drops his silent charge off, he belatedly realizes that it was probably lonely too, and turns back to find it. Seeing Jeffers’s small, distant figures in wide, simply brushed land- and sea-scapes, young viewers will probably cotton to the penguin’s feelings before the boy himself does—but all’s well that ends well, and the reunited companions are last seen adrift together in the wide blue sea.
Readers who (inexplicably) find David Lawrence’s Pickle and Penguin (2004) just too weird may settle in more comfortably with this—slightly—less offbeat friendship tale. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24503-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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