Avuncular and appealing, Farmer George—along with his wife, Dotty, and the company of animals that populate his quaint English farm—once again rise to the challenge presented by life in the countryside. Farmer George, all muttonchops and Wellingtons, must go to the aid of his sheep when a snowstorm covers their dinner. To get a bail of hay to the upper pasture, he enlists the aid of his trusty dog and horse. Upon reaching the sheep, Farmer George learns that a lamb, Larry, is stuck in a snowdrift. With all the creatures working together, Larry is retrieved and brought back to the farmhouse to warm up. Those who read this season’s other Farmer George book (Farmer George and the New Piglet, see above) won’t be surprised to learn that Larry and his caretaker snooze the night away together only to wake to the rest of the farm animals who’ve come to the parlor to check on them. Ward renders the proceedings in highly narrative, warmly tempered artwork. The story has its moments of staggering sweetness, but the genial atmosphere of cooperation and rhythms of farm life strike elemental chords. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-86205-516-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pavilion/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
A lighthearted countdown in which a bear and his buddies elude the bumblings of a troop of hunters. In a voice that works well as either a jaunty sing-song or as a lullaby, Parker’s verse follows the hunters as they are eliminated, one by one, while they try to hunt down the not particularly wily bear. “Ten hairy hunters start following the trail. / Ten hairy hunters are hot on Bear’s tail. / Ten hairy hunters head into the unknown. / Shhh! Bear’s friends do some hunting of their own. / Nine hairy hunters . . . ” Bolam’s ice cream-colored cartoons follow the action as one man at a time is removed from the hunters’ file by an unlikely cast of ursine pals: elephants, giraffes, tigers, snakes, who end up adorned in their hats, shorts, and shoes. There is an excellent combination in these pages of the mildly hair-raising with the humorous, a kind of slapstick for the very young, as the hunters set traps while oblivious to the fact that they are the quarry. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-670-03546-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
Ahlberg and Tyler (Snail House, 2001) celebrate the playful games that deepen family ties; each morning brings a succession of treasure hunts, as Tilly’s mother hides her breakfast banana in the kitchen, her father hides her sock rabbit in the garage—and where has the cat gone off? Even grandma gets into the game, hiding chocolate coins on Tilly’s birthday. Tilly crows with pleasure each time she finds another “treasure,” and turns the tables at bedtime, as her fond parents hunt high and low before “finding” her behind the curtains. Tyler’s small domestic scenes are rendered in such pale colors and fine, sketchy detail that even though the hidden objects (and the chubby post-toddler) are always in plain sight, viewers too will have to hunt for them. A cozy companion for such similar explorations of family ritual as Ezra Jack Keats’s Peter’s Chair (1967) and Vera Williams’s “More, More, More,” Said the Baby (1990). (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-1542-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
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