An entertaining delight for (nonpig) budding engineers everywhere.
The three little pigs creatively take on the Big Bad Wolf.
Struggling to keep her family afloat, a mother pig tells her three children that they have to seek their own fortunes. The classic narrative framework is here: The wolf tries to eat each pig at a house made out of grass bundles, a house made of “a large pile of construction materials,” and one that is a “stately castle.” But each pig has a calculated plan for thwarting the wolf, who eventually slinks back home. The pigs’ clever constructions, conveyed in Geisert’s trademark detailed illustrations, will enthrall children who love to build things (or take them apart): There’s a complicated mechanism for blasting the wolf with flour; a house under construction that puts itself together when the wolf huffs on it; and one that releases an “intricate alarm system of horns and whistles” when the wolf puffs on it. The illustrations, hand-colored copperplate etchings, have a distinct and inviting texture. Some of the illustrations, blurry and slightly out of focus, mimic the shaking of big blasts, though at least one that does not involve destruction is also blurry and, therefore, hard on the eyes. Vivid descriptors are used to bring the wolf’s exertions to the page: “Famished and desperate, the Big Bad Wolf huffed and puffed and blew mightily.” The worldbuilding in the illustrations is thoughtful and elaborate and will have readers poring over the pages.
An entertaining delight for (nonpig) budding engineers everywhere. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59270-314-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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BOOK REVIEW
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