A dragon, a damsel in distress, and a knight in shining armor—recipe for a typical fairy tale? Not quite, thanks to the intrusion of a fussbudget farmer with a monumental case of tunnel vision. With eyes only for his beloved tractor, Arthur interprets the damsel’s squeaks, the knight’s thunderous arrival, and his clamorous fall, as calls to do a bit of maintenance on the sprocket spring sprigget, the bundle weaver, or some other temperamental agricultural gadget. Ignoring the fracas around him, Arthur carefully oils, curls, and sharpens, then, when needs must, enlists the combatants’ aid for a bit of dragon-fired spot welding, helped by an elegantly gowned new assistant whose name, as it turns out, is Edith. After she compliments Arthur on his “finely tuned and turned-out tractor,” and he notes that she’s rather well-tuned and turned out herself, the stage is set for a decidedly atypical Happily Ever After. With cheerfully effervescent pen and brushwork, Paine (Big George, 2001, etc.) places rumpled-looking figures into sunny rural scenes, through which scamper various small, recognizable folk-tale figures. This lighthearted spin-off chugs along as merrily as the shiny red tractor at the center of it all. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-58234-847-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2003
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Thanks to parrot-toting Braidbeard and his gloriously disreputable crew, a lad discovers the ups and downs of a pirate’s life in this rousing mini-epic. His mom and dad busy on another part of the beach, young Jeremy happily joins a band of hook-handed, eye-patched, snaggle-toothed pirates aboard their ship, learning pirate table manners (none), enjoying a game of nautical soccer until a shark eats the ball, then happily retiring without having to brush teeth, or even don pajamas. But then Jeremy learns that pirates don’t get tucked in, or get bedtime stories, and as for good night kisses—Avast! Worse yet, no one offers comfort when a storm hits. So, giving over the pirate’s life, Jeremy shows the crew where to bury its treasure (his backyard), and bids them goodbye. Shannon outfits Braidbeard’s leering, pop-eyed lot in ragged but colorful pirate dress, and gives his young ruffian-in-training a belt and bandanna to match. This isn’t likely to turn pirate wannabees into landlubbers, but it will inspire a chorus of yo-ho-hos. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-15-201848-4
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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