Stick with a tried-and-true version of “The Three Little Pigs” and one of the charming pug stories of the last few years,...
Three pug puppies interact with an assertive cat in this simple, humorous story with not-so-subtle references to “The Three Little Pigs.”
The puppies, Gordy, Jilly, and Zoie, love active games followed by joint naps in their big wicker basket. When the unnamed “big bad cat” boldly takes over their bed, the puppies must figure out how to dislodge him. They try making the basket uncomfortable by adding items related to straw, sticks, and bricks. Gordy puts a pile of drinking straws in the bed, and later, Jilly adds sticks, using pencils, crayons, drum sticks, and knitting needles (but not sticks from a tree). Zoie contributes bricks, including Lego blocks, a pack of playing cards, and one larger, toy construction brick. When none of these methods work (“the very last straw!”), the pups leap onto the sleeping cat. They all curl up to sleep together, becoming friends as indicated in a photo-album collection on the concluding endpapers. The uncomplicated story structure and large, motion-filled illustrations make this an appealing choice for younger preschoolers just moving into real stories. However, some of the vocabulary and wordplay, such as “pug-o-war” for tug of war, “love seat” for sofa or couch, Legos described simply as “bricks,” and “the very last straw,” are over the heads of the intended audience. Another confusing issue is the mismatch of the colors of the cat and the pug ears and snouts on the cover, which do not match the colors in the internal illustrations.
Stick with a tried-and-true version of “The Three Little Pigs” and one of the charming pug stories of the last few years, such as Pug by Ethan Long (2016) or Pig and Pug by Lynne Barry and illustrated by Gemma Correll (2015). (Picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0529-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles.
Even more alliterative hanky-panky from the creators of The Wonky Donkey (2010).
Operating on the principle (valid, here) that anything worth doing is worth overdoing, Smith and Cowley give their wildly popular Wonky Donkey a daughter—who, being “cute and small,” was a “dinky donkey”; having “beautiful long eyelashes” she was in consequence a “blinky dinky donkey”; and so on…and on…and on until the cumulative chorus sails past silly and ludicrous to irresistibly hysterical: “She was a stinky funky plinky-plonky winky-tinky,” etc. The repeating “Hee Haw!” chorus hardly suggests what any audience’s escalating response will be. In the illustrations the daughter sports her parent’s big, shiny eyes and winsome grin while posing in a multicolored mohawk next to a rustic boombox (“She was a punky blinky”), painting her hooves pink, crossing her rear legs to signal a need to pee (“winky-tinky inky-pinky”), demonstrating her smelliness with the help of a histrionic hummingbird, and finally cozying up to her proud, evidently single parent (there’s no sign of another) for a closing cuddle.
Should be packaged with an oxygen supply, as it will incontestably elicit uncontrollable gales of giggles. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-60083-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“One little hot dog sitting on a chair…” quickly multiplies to ten in this unimaginative counting book. Each turn of the page adds another dog to the plush blue chair. The wiener dogs play with toys and each other until the ten are tuckered out and fall asleep. The book then counts down as, one by one, the dogs awaken to continue their rumpus on the floor in front of the chair. While the dogs are cute, the text lacks the rhythm and rhyme that would truly make this come alive. Himmelman’s watercolor-and-pencil illustrations are filled with lively pups, but even their antics may not be enough to hold readers’ attention, as the scenery never changes. While they are easy to count, apart from the thin band of color on their collars the dogs are indistinguishable from each other, making it difficult for children to determine which dog joined, or left, the chair. With the dogs being so small in relation to the page size, this is best saved for one-on-one sharing with true dachshund lovers. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5797-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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