There comes a time in every life when it’s appropriate to pull up stakes and move from the family home. Like, say, you’re a pig who has attained porkerhood and takes up a bit too much space in the farmer’s living room. In Doyle’s gentle tale of the sometimes-rocky road to independence, the farmer squires the big pig to some pleasing new domiciles, but the pig finds them cold and lonely after the security of hearth and home. So he waddles back to the old place. In a last attempt, the farmer takes the pig far, far away to what looks like, in Bendall-Brunello’s cheerful watercolors, a pig commune. But it’s late when the farmer starts homeward and he gets lost in the forest. Who should save his skin but Pig, who is up to his waddling tricks again. Young readers will be comforted to know that they can always waddle home, even when they’ve grown to be big critters themselves, and the world out there seems cold and lonely. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2006
ISBN: 0-689-87484-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
In this cumulative tale in the tradition of The Mitten and Mushroom in the Rain, a fluffy, friendly dog named Rover makes room in his doghouse for a succession of animals seeking shelter from a thunderstorm. The short, patterned text uses rhyming couplets and a cumulative refrain urging each animal in turn to squeeze into the crowded doghouse. The final arrival—a skunk—disperses the crowd, and Rover returns to his home to enjoy his solitude with all the other animals camouflaged within the surrounding scene in the final spread. Dyer’s watercolors are as charming as always, drawing the reader into the action with varying perspectives to show the expanding group. She uses subtle streaks of gray and white to indicate the driving rain and just a barely opened eye to show that the sleeping animals are aware of each new addition to their refuge. The bouncy rhymes and expressive paintings complement each other well, melding into a simple but satisfying story that will fit into story hours with themes of rain, dogs, or sharing. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-15-201979-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
As brilliant as can be.
A sun, a flower, and a lion. They look similar, no?
Introduced in a wordless panel before the title page, the three figures bear at least two shapes in common. They’re also the same combination of warm yellow and (somehow just as warm) white, outlined in thick black line that pops against the muted yellow background. The text, divided into six short chapters, goes on to introduce the figures in isolation: “This is the sun. / Can you see it?” the narrator asks before going on to proclaim that the sun “is as bright as a flower.” When the flower is introduced, it’s compared to a lion. The lion? He isn’t compared to anything but instead smells the flower and warms himself in the sun. In the next chapter, the lion dreams that the flowers are sun-sized cookies. He wakes up hungry and runs home as fast as he can. Can readers spot him on the page? Using a vocabulary of fewer than 60 words and their variants—and a visual vocabulary of even fewer shapes and colors—Henkes creates an impeccably designed story that’s rewarding for toddlers and early readers alike. The repetitive structure and tone call to mind the playful simplicity of Mem Fox and Judy Horacek’s Where Is the Green Sheep? (2004). With imagination at its center, this participatory read-aloud also cleverly introduces the concept of simile (“It looks like a lion”) and metaphor (“The flowers are cookies”).
As brilliant as can be. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-286610-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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