The movies were better.
The toque-topped star of a series of online miniepisodes makes the shift to print with a culinary conundrum.
Billed as “the world’s tiniest cooking show,” the original stop-motion featurettes are set in an elaborately laid-out hollow tree-stump kitchen furnished with miniature cookware and bric-a-brac—all on display here in a set of digitally tweaked photos that effectively steal the show from both the rudimentary storyline and its felted green protagonist. Tiny Chef, who writes and speaks in language resembling baby talk with a speech impediment, is all set to make “Blegaful Mie” (vegetable pie)…but his prized “weshipee blook” has gone missing amid the clutter! Following a fruitless search and a bit of calming meditation, he gathers sprigs of fresh herbs and veggies, chops them all on the countertop, and just before finally dishing up an improvised “Blegaful Shew” (stew), finds his blook. “The Chef can’t believe it! / His little heart bursts. / It was there all along— / Did you see it first?” (Of course you did.) Replete with extra syllables and switches in rhyme scheme, the overworked narrative concludes with the nutritious observation that “the very best recipes… / come straight from the heart” and a full recipe for that likewise nutritious “Shew.” (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70% of actual size.)
The movies were better. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11505-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
A hard-boiled text for determined new readers in pursuit of wordplay.
A whodunit for newly independent readers with wordplay galore.
Detective Wilcox and Capt. Griswold are two anthropomorphic mice on the crime beat at the farm. They are “Missing Food Investigators.” The text that follows their story is broken up into some sections that emulate police logs and short chapters with narrative text and dialogue. Both parts, however, are laden with puns. “The poached egg” of the title is a stolen egg belonging to one Henrietta Hen. When she calls to report the crime Wilcox asks, “Did she fly the coop?” The MFIs interrogate various suspects about potential “fowl play” around the farm, including the loquacious Gabby Goose and Col. Peck, the rooster. Handwriting analysis and the thief’s slip-up at an egg contest lead the rodent gumshoes to the culprit, a “rotten egg” indeed, by the end of the book. Cartoon illustrations bolster the humor of the text and will provide some context clues, though the layout is rather cluttered and the text is likely too complex in large, overwhelming text blocks for many new readers; kids readying themselves to move on to chapter books should find it a suitable challenge.
A hard-boiled text for determined new readers in pursuit of wordplay. (Early reader. 7-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-939547-30-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although entertaining and fast-paced, there is nothing to elevate this effort above a crowded field.
The spunky, smart, but fictional Hilde who cracks a string of pastry thefts before the evening deadline is modeled after a real Hilde—the co-author—who runs her own newspaper.
Each crime—a stolen cherry pie, missing lemon cupcakes, eggs taken from under the hens, a broken cookie jar, a list of bake-off contestants that has disappeared—includes a clue that perceptive Hilde, in the quest of a good story, is sure to recognize. Aided by her sister, Izzy, the staff photographer, Hilde gamely moves from one crime to the next, calming irate adults as she eventually connects the dots just in the nick of time. Lew-Vriethoff’s attractive illustrations (many of which were just sketches at the time of review) are liberally sprinkled throughout the brief text, appearing on nearly every page. Hilde (and almost everyone else illustrated) is depicted as white. Her notes are included throughout; later a compilation is displayed. Unfortunately for fellow sleuths, the true perpetrator, although hinted at previously, isn’t included among Hilde’s list of potential thieves, making it hard to solve the crime ahead of the reporter herself. Although character development is lacking, it’s the investigation that’s the centerpiece of the tale, the first in a new series for emergent chapter-book readers.
Although entertaining and fast-paced, there is nothing to elevate this effort above a crowded field. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-14156-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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