Determined to earn her Good-Deed Badge, Pig Scout Sylvia Jean attempts to nurse her elderly neighbor, temporarily housebound with an ankle sprain. She gathers an assortment of first-aid supplies from tulips to puppets, but her towering tuba causes a commotion. Forbidden to visit Mrs. VanHooven again, Sylvia Jean dons a variety of outrageous costumes to assist the injured pig: A caped Spanish visitor serves homemade delicacies, a French ballerina twirls in with chocolates and a cowboy brings the latest bestseller. The gentle resolution brings praise for the child’s earnest efforts and newfound friendship. Punchy phrases carry an engaging story line, and Sylvia Jean’s exuberant personality shines through her dialogue. “Prepare to be amazed!” she sings. Expressive faces enhance the gentle narrative; thin lines indicate a quiet vulnerability. Ernst’s scenes feature her signature pastel palette even as humorous details advance the energetic tale (Sylvia Jean’s fretful pacing is priceless). Originally featured in Sylvia Jean, Drama Queen (2005), this sweet and spunky swine remains all heart. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-525-47873-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will agree: All differences should be hugged, er, embraced.
Watch out, Hug Machine (Scott Campbell, 2014), there’s another long-limbed lover of squeezes in the mix.
Bernard, a tiny, lavender bird, dejectedly sits atop a high branch. His wings droop all the way to the ground. Heaving a sigh, his disappointment is palpable. With insufferably long wings, he has never been able to fly. All of his friends easily took to the skies, leaving him behind. There is nothing left to do but sit in his tree and feel sorry for himself. Adamson amusingly shows readers the passage of time with a sequence of vignettes of Bernard sitting in the rain, the dark, and amid a cloud of paper wasps—never moving from his branch. Then one day he hears a sob and finds a tearful orangutan. Without even thinking, Bernard wraps his long wings around the great ape. The orangutan is comforted! Bernard has finally found the best use of his wings. In gentle watercolor and pencil sketches, Adamson slips in many moments of humor. Animals come from all over to tell Bernard their troubles (a lion muses that it is “lonely at the top of the food chain” while a bat worries about missing out on fun during the day). Three vertical spreads that necessitate a 90-degree rotation add to the fun.
Readers will agree: All differences should be hugged, er, embraced. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-9271-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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