A beautifully illustrated, limerick-heavy, and mortality-free rendition of a classic fairy tale.
A picture book offers a rhyming retelling of “The Three Little Pigs.”
“Once, long ago, there lived a big pig. / The pig—a mother of three,” Brougher’s story begins. “Once they had grown,” they said “goodbye with a moan, / it was time, to set them all free.” Mother Pig, wearing lipstick but no clothes, lies on her side in a barn with three pigs nursing. In the next image, she is still nude, though bipedal, while her clothed pig sons walk down the road. Warrick’s digital watercolors in warm tones with dynamic penciled lines render this awkward shift between animal and human modes gracefully. The fairy tale trots on predictably, though with intriguing turns of phrase that evoke casual oral storytelling (“Along came a wolf—you know what he had? / Big hands, big feet—a big head!”). These slight textual innovations should sustain reader interest; the wolf thrice declares: “Then, I’ll huff and I’ll puff—I will blow at the house!” No pigs are eaten in this story. Instead, the villain faces his inability to blow down brick houses (“The wolf’s ego deflated—the pigs were elated”). Some modern items, including a TV, appear in this tale set “long ago.” But the treat here is the appealing, detailed art: sunny, Midwestern pastoral landscapes; lovingly rendered plump chickens; and salt-of-the-earth White farmers more than willing to sell a truckload of bricks to a small, cardigan-wearing pig.
A beautifully illustrated, limerick-heavy, and mortality-free rendition of a classic fairy tale.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73-503122-4
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Missing Piece Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections.
A young rabbit frets about her upcoming violin performance in Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s literary debut.
Mei Mei’s dream—“to share her music with the world”—is about to come true. She’s having her very first recital, complete with an orchestra, at the H’Opera House. But the day before the concert, Mei Mei is racked with anxiety. What if she plays a bum note in front of everyone? Sure enough, the worst happens mid-performance: She hits a clinker. But by remembering her mom’s reassuring sentiments from the night before (“Feel the wind…find the notes to make it right”), Mei Mei summons the strength to soldier on, and “wrong notes become right. Dissonance becomes beautiful.” At times, it all feels more like a resilience parable than a story, and the writing can be precious (“The flutter of butterflies wakes Mei Mei from her slumber”). Still, the message is solid, bolstered by O’Hara’s pencil and watercolor illustrations, which are plush-toy soft—fitting, as even prior to this book’s publication, a stuffed Mei Mei has been for sale at Grammy winner Laufey’s website. The tale features an all-animal, all-adorable cast, and endearingly, the art betrays no hint of modern times. A standout image presents Mei Mei onstage, temporarily incapacitated by her mistake and imagining her fellow musicians and their instruments with the color-blasted menace of an expressionist painting.
A reassuring riff on embracing imperfections. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798217051748
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
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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