A whimsical artistic meditation that perhaps needed more time on the drawing board.
Inspired by Rousseau’s painting of the same name, Gerstein imagines a dream that provoked the artist to create it.
It’s unfortunate that a different book title highlighting the dream conceit, rather than reiterating the painting title’s problematic use of “gypsy,” wasn’t used. A prologue includes a black-and-white drawing of a child looking at the painting and explicitly says, “this book suggests some of the answers” to possible questions prompted by the mysterious scene. Although she appears neither childlike nor small, the text refers to the sleeping person as “a girl” and identifies her as a figure in Rousseau’s dream. Instead of answering questions that would put her story at the center (Why is she walking through the desert? What is her name? Where is she going?), the text and art introduce animals (including the lion that looms over the figure in the painting) that enter Rousseau’s dream and speculate about her. Then Rousseau enters his own dream, announcing that both girl and animals are there "so that I may paint a picture," which reinforces her marginalization. When Rousseau himself awakens, he, of course, paints his dream—minus all the animals but the lion, as they become so contentious he omits them. Gerstein ably captures the dreaminess of both his subject and the story, but although the participation of the animals is a child-friendly device, it serves to distract readers from the unanswered questions about the title character.
A whimsical artistic meditation that perhaps needed more time on the drawing board. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2142-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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A potential gift for fans of the contributors’ earlier work.
A text-heavy, joke-filled monograph about a dreaded bestowal.
In this meta text, an unseen narrator gripes about everything they wish they had received as a present, including a dog and a skateboard. “Now I feel like I have to read it,” the narrator grumps about their book gift. In subsequent spreads, they express their frustration. Sensitive bibliophiles beware: The narrator is ruthless in their scorn of giving books as presents. Some may tire of the message, repeated page after page in different ways: “Look, I’m a doer, not a reader,” one page reads, accompanied by an image of a muscled arm. The narrator makes references to clogging the toilet with homemade slime (“I told them it most definitely wasn’t me”)—a moment that will appeal to older kids who can grasp and revel in the humor. Human skin is shown as printer paper white, tan, and blue. Layouts are boisterous yet uncluttered, using text in various sizes, colors, and fonts. Pleasant near-pastel yellow, blue, and purple back up goofy illustrations, sure to draw interest even if the quips go over younger kids’ heads. Some elements, like the desire to receive X-ray vision as a present, will resonate widely with the target audience, though the story largely treads similar ground as Greenfield and Lowery’s I Don’t Want To Read This Book (2021). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A potential gift for fans of the contributors’ earlier work. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-46236-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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