Mary had a little lamb, you say? Not quite: a little ham, of both the porcine and thespian variety. Stanley Snoutowski, last in his litter, hams it up at Mary’s school (where it was against the rule) and then sets his sights on Broadway. Success eludes him at first, but encouraging notes from Mary keep him going until the day the famous producers Hoggers and Hammerswine step into his cab for a ride to 42nd St.—and the rest is theatre history. Palatini keeps the puns and jokes coming thick and fast, even as she keeps narrative tongue firmly in cheek: “Stanley wondered if he could really cut the mustard in one of Sheepspeare’s classics.” Francis’s cheerfully goofy illustrations extend the jokes, depicting a cattle call peopled with farm animals in cow suits, udders dangling, psyching themselves for the audition. It is the evident good humor of both text and illustrations that will get young readers through a story that depends on a trope largely unfamiliar to both of them—that, and Stanley’s endearing, dogged determination to make it pig. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7868-0566-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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