Suspense looms in the air as young woodland creatures get closer and closer to big bad Grandma Wolf until it looks like their collective gooses may be cooked. Word spreads in the forest (a very lovely and lush forest as portrayed in Brown’s watercolors) that a bad old hairy wolf is living nearby. A company of animals puts aside their trepidation and goes to investigate. From outside the wolf’s house, they can see her asleep in her bed. Piglet calls out, “What’s the time, Grandma Wolf?” She replies that it’s time to get up. Each creature in turn asks the time, and each time they take a step closer to the wolf, as she scrubs the cooking pot, fetches water, sets it to boil, until finally they are very close and Grandma Wolf cries out, “Dinnertime!” The animals stand frozen, like fawns caught in the beam of a headlight, but Grandma’s only ready to serve them a vegetable stew and read them a story—guess which one. Young readers will feel a note of pleasing apprehension—mostly from Grandma’s rack of conspicuous fangs—but never enough to stir terror. The repetitions may even provoke readers to chime in, and Brown (The Scarecrow’s Hat, p. 179, etc.) has provided the rules for a game—“What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?”—that kids can play on their own. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56145-250-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
Twilit enchantment.
Mama and Baby Bear are back, enjoying a summer evening of foraging enlivened by an enthusiastic game of hide-and-seek.
As they watch bats fly from their den, Baby Bear asks Mama where they go. “They are going to look for food,” she replies, and the pair sets off to do likewise. On successive spreads, Mama “sniffs the warm night air” and eats berries, catches a trout, drinks water, and munches dandelions, all the while playing the familiar game. Whenever “she looks around, / Baby Bear is nowhere in sight. / ‘Where, oh where, is Baby Bear?’ calls Mama.” Wolff hides Baby Bear in plain sight for children to spy. Each time he reveals himself, the cub identifies both an element of his woodland habitat and an English preposition to learn about. “Here I am, Mama…. / Inside the mossy log.” He also hides “up” in a birch tree, “behind” a waterfall, “between” some cattails, and “on top of” a boulder, silhouetted against the rising full moon. Mama’s gentle indulgence of her cub’s miniexplorations exemplifies confident parenting. With her firm “Come along now, Baby Bear,” the two retrace the evening’s feeding (and hiding) spots. (Wolff adds some fresh prepositions, too.) Wolff fully masters her media—linoleum prints luminously enhanced with watercolor. Children will pore over these pages, identifying creatures of woodland and meadow.
Twilit enchantment. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9916-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
The message is wholehearted and positive, but the cloying execution doesn’t stand out.
A parent koala encourages its child to engage in every pursuit, and so do several other animals.
The British celebrity author, host of both children’s and adult TV programs, has a very positive message to spread, but there is nothing original in the lightweight text. The many animal characters pictured in diverting, fuzzy-edged illustrations engage in various activities as the text encourages them. “You can sing! If you love to sing, sing. / Shout at the top of your lungs, or whisper soft and sweet.” On verso, a frog quartet harmonizes, while across the gutter, a lion is shown with open mouth roaring as a small bird presumably whispers. Using rhyme and alliteration but without real poetic consistency, lines such as these appear: “You can share. You can care. You can create. You can learn. / You can wonder. You can wander.” The pink flamingo creating a fantastic dessert with pineapple rings is an appealing image, and children will enjoy seeing the cuddly baby koala throughout the book as other animals step up for their showcase. The fantasy-forest setting and its animals will keep small children engaged, but the sweetness comes with a significant aftertaste of treacle. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 34.5% of actual size.)
The message is wholehearted and positive, but the cloying execution doesn’t stand out. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-18141-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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