Both the devilry of Tom and the clever inclusion of the consequences of his act invest this story with real charm and make the attending lesson in time most palatable. Tom, who has a head shaped like a paintbrush, discovers a can of red paint under the kitchen sink. It takes him three seconds to figure out what to do with it and three minutes to get the lid off. He paints the entire living room red. His mother goes ballistic; then it takes three weeks to clean up the mess, and each step of the process is delineated. They rent a dumpster for the destroyed furniture, strip the wallpaper, sand the woodwork, pick the paint, reject the paint they picked, and on and on in increasingly smaller typeface that makes readers feel as if they are spinning into the void. Once the mess is cleaned up, a year goes by, then two, then three, and an older Tom finds a can of blue paint under the kitchen sink. It’s a witty lesson, especially with the infusion of the cautionary element and the sense of time it imparts. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-888444-63-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
Seibold and Walsh (Olive, the Other Reindeer, 1997, etc.) don’t provide much for readers to hold on to in the thick glossy pages of this oddly imagined, computer-generated tale of few words. Chongo Chingi the penguin is sleeping and dreaming. He dreams he flies with geese, and glides by an airplane, meets a metamorphosing bat, goes off into an outer space filled with sea creatures, and wakes up to his own alarm clock. The loosely rhymed text has the random sense of dreams, or of children’s own stories. The amusing images are the rounded, metallic-looking forms that characterize these collaborators’ previous books. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8118-2558-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
In a book that shows one kind of conflict resolution, Hugo, a shy frog with a small croak, learns to be more assertive with the help of a duck. Hugo lives in terror of the big frogs, especially Pop Eyes, a bully who dumps Hugo into the pond upside down, snatches his stick, and splashes him. Duck teaches Hugo to quack loudly when threatened, and the next time the bully frogs come around, Hugo opens his mouth and bellows “QUACK!” The result of this surprising emission is that birds scatter, butterflies flutter, fish flap, and the bully frogs fall into the pond. Church’s art gives the frogs, fish, snails, and worms of this story bright colors and ping-pong-ball eyes, plus the requisite goofy expressions. A funny story, with surprises that will have toddlers giggling. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-86233-093-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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