A stubborn pig refuses to crack a smile even as all the other farm animals are laughing at the mayhem. “A chick might snicker,” “a calf might laugh,” and “a duck might chuckle,” but riddles, silly dancing, and even fiddling can’t coax this pig to giggle. Cartoon-like illustrations rendered in watercolor and colored pencils depict the silly animals as they amuse themselves and each other with their antics. A spectacles-wearing owl, an accordion-playing turtle, and a fiddling chick are sure to tickle the funny bone of even the most serious young readers. Still, when the young boy and animals speed up their wild antics, figuring that maybe faster twirling and jumping will amuse their porcine friend, he will not laugh. It’s the pig that gets the last laugh however, because when the other animals are looking away, he offers a grin. The rhyming phrases and tongue-twisting verses will certainly challenge even the most seasoned veteran of the read-aloud. Even if the “piggy won’t giggle,” most everyone else will. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46881-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Playfully shows that love comes in all shapes and sizes.
All kinds of animals interact fancifully in loving embraces.
An eclectic collection of animals is depicted in warm, softly textured watercolor paintings on double-page spreads. Each of the diverse animals is shown affectionately cuddling another in novel ways, sometimes two of the same species, sometimes completely different. An elephant has a tiny, big-eared fox nestled in its ear: “I love you with all of my ears”; an aardvark, a tapir and a proboscis monkey twine their snouts together as ants crawl around; multieyed spiders ogle each other; a gray fox wraps its tail around a lion’s mane; whales and dolphins breach and dive; and a pair of chameleons is locked in a tight embrace: “I love you with all of my skin.” The title animal, the octopus, loves its child “with all of my hearts.” These and other whimsical conjunctions of a variety of animals will afford a lively bedtime conversation, aided by a useful glossary at the end with fun facts about all the animals depicted. Did you know that Arctic foxes have 20,000 hairs per square centimeter on their bodies, and there is a millipede with 750 legs—“more than any other creature on the planet!” The nerdy older sib will enjoy this as much as the little one.
Playfully shows that love comes in all shapes and sizes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-56846-359-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
To quote one particularly joyous double-page spread, “Oh, what a ride!”
A succession of forest creatures—and even the river itself—learn from one another and validate their relationships with both one another and the wider world.
The simplicity of the text and the stylized, comical creatures belie the depth of the message that comes through for even the youngest of readers: We are all in this together, and our differences strengthen our unity. The river “didn’t know it was a river…until” Bear accidentally begins riding down it on a piece of broken tree trunk. Bear in turn doesn’t realize he is on an adventure until Froggy lands on his back; lonely Froggy doesn’t know how many friends she has until the wary Turtles show up on the ever-more-swiftly-moving log; the Turtles learn how to enjoy the ride when Beaver climbs aboard; and so on through several more characters until they are all at the brink of a waterfall. Outstanding art perfectly complements the text, showing the animals’ differing personalities while also using color, space, and patterns to create appealing scenery. There are several hilarious double-page spreads, including one from the animals’ collective perspective, showing solely the various feet on the tree-trunk–cum-raft at the waterfall’s edge, and one requiring a 90-degree turn, showing the plummeting animals as they reach for one another—some looking worried and others, like Duck and Beaver, obviously enjoying the sudden drop.
To quote one particularly joyous double-page spread, “Oh, what a ride!” (author’s note, illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-46447-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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