A young girl’s extraordinary wish comes true until an old lady moves in to take her place. On her eighth birthday, Eliza Prattlebottom wishes an elephant would come and take her away from her busy parents. “Two days, six hours, thirty-seven minutes, and nine seconds” later an elephant named Cousin Floyd materializes, lifts Eliza onto his back and takes off at “four times the speed of wind.” No one notices the elephant except 97-year-old Adelle, who remembers her own wish for an elephant when she was a girl and decides it’s time to rejoin Cousin Floyd. Memory carries Adelle back where the world looks “jungly” and there she finds Cousin Floyd with Eliza. But only one wisher can stay with the elephant, so either Adelle or Eliza must go home. Juan’s bold, fanciful acrylic-and-crayon illustrations create colorful, dreamlike scenes that prove the perfect accompaniment to the candid, imaginative text—a wedding of magical realism in word and image. A stunning lesson in the power of wishes and memory pitting the child Eliza against the childlike Adelle. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-375-83962-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
A real little winner.
Discouraged with her small stature, a little yak tackles a size-related challenge.
Living atop a snowy mountain, Gertie’s the smallest yak in her huddling herd. Despite having the “curliest, whirliest wool” as well as “splendidly grippy” hooves to scale the most “slippy” cliff, Gertie longs for “BIGNESS.” She wants to grow up to have “greatness and tallness” and the “hugest of hooves and humongous horns.” Reminding Gertie that yaks are “all shapes and sizes / and BIGNESS can come in all sorts of disguises,” Gertie’s mother urges her to enjoy being small. Nevertheless, Gertie embarks on a “Growing-Up Plan,” eating well, exercising, and reading to make her thoughts grow, but despite her efforts, “no growing arrive[s].” But then the herd frantically calls on Gertie to rescue a yak trapped on a cliff edge, a dangerous mission only she can attempt, and Gertie discovers she’s had “bigness inside” all along. The jolly, fast-paced, rhyming verse propels readers through diminutive Gertie’s harrowing, wind-swept rescue mission and matches the upbeat mood of her quest for “bigness.” A pleasing palette of silvers, grays, and blues with red and yellow accents accentuates the bleak, snowy mountaintop venue, while whimsical scenes of hairy, wide-eyed, comical yaks of assorted shapes and sizes sporting amusing cold-weather headgear will trigger chuckles and reinforce the message of individuality.
A real little winner. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-68263-282-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Perfect for sharing with young children, this crowd-pleaser features an oversized format, a rhythmic text and a cast of big, easily visible woodland creatures—led by a bear who never brushes or bathes: “Big Smelly Bear was followed by a big smelly stink wherever he went. Flies buzzed all around him. But they were the only ones that ever came close.” This last becomes a real problem when Bear wakes one day with an unbearable (so to speak) itch in a place that he just can’t reach. Happily, along comes Big Fluffy Bear, who is not only willing to scratch if he’ll clean up his act, but has the gumption to withstand his initial bellowed refusals. Closing with a scene of tender togetherness, and a final view of Big Smelly Bear in the pond with a scrub brush and a rubber duckie, this should engender roars of approval while deftly making its point. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 20, 2007
ISBN: 1-905417-37-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
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