Dixie Lee can't hep' herse'f. She keeps bringing home critters from Hokey Pokey Swamp: an alligator, a snake, an owl, pets she intends to keep to ward off churn turners stealing buttermilk stored in the well, a bogeyman set on taking some dentures, and the mist sisters who leave bad luck wherever they go. Mama has her reservations, but the creatures prove their worth and Dixie Lee's bestiary takes a place in their home. Gobbets of the deep, swampy South find a comfortable niche in this tale—buttermilk churns and gomper jars and watery phantoms; there's no question that the great dismal harbors things both creepy and friendlike—while the southern crawl to the narrative brings Dixieland alive. The sing- song spirit of the wording, along with flurries of rhymes—sets the stage for an atmospheric read-aloud. Moser's dexterous watercolor images are trademark—just this side of sentimentality, with moody ethereal interpretations alternating with formal, minutely observed still lifes. An uptempo regional tale; you may not want a snake protecting your gompers, but it's better than the bogeyman wearing them around.
Pub Date: March 30, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-021030-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A young boy wonders aloud to a rabbit friend what he will be when he grows up and imagines some outrageous choices. “Puddle stomper,” “bubble gum popper,” “mixing-bowl licker,” “baby-sis soother” are just some of the 24 inspiringly creative vocations Spinelli’s young dreamer envisions in this pithy rhymed account. Aided by Liao’s cleverly integrated full-bleed mixed-media illustrations, which radiate every hue of the rainbow, and dynamic typesetting with words that swoop and dive, the author’s perspective on this adult-inspired question yields some refreshingly child-oriented answers. Given such an irresistible array of options—“So many jobs! / They’re all such fun”—the boy in the end decides, in an exuberant double gatefold, “I’m going to choose… / EVERY ONE!”—a conclusion befitting a generation expected to have more than six careers each. Without parents or peers around to corral this carefree child’s dreams, the possibilities of being whatever one wants appear both limitless and attainable. An inspired take on a timeless question. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-316-16226-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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