Day becomes night, actually, in this strange game of word association by McGuire (The Orange Book, 1992). Unlike the more conventional process of sunset, darkening skies, stars appearing, and the like, McGuire follows the day as it becomes ``bright'' then ``sun,'' ``shine,'' ``sparkle,'' ``stream,'' and so on—although ``so on'' implies no obvious progression. The book follows an interior logic that only occasionally conforms to our more mundane notions of reason. For example, ``Stream becomes river/And river becomes ocean'' doesn't seem so outlandish, but how exactly does one understand ``City becomes building/And building becomes cloud''? Still, this is an appealing book. McGuire's illustrations are lively and diverting. Unusual and amusing, but don't look too deeply. (Fiction/Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-670-85547-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A twisted take on an old standard that just may have readers rewriting their own favorites.
An omniscient narrator battles Hansel and Gretel for control of the story…and loses, to readers’ delight.
At the start, this seems like the standard fairy tale, but it’s not long before the siblings are contradicting the narrator: “What kind of person SAVES bread crumbs?” Gretel asks, and Hansel adds, “It’s a time of great famine. If there are bread crumbs left, we eat them.” These cheeky retorts only grow more numerous as the tale continues. Gretel also flexes her feminist muscles, demanding the title be “Gretel and Hansel” and that she not do chores while Hansel gets fattened up on a candy diet (or swells from a sensitivity to strawberries, as it turns out: “Food allergies are NOT a joke”). Eventually, the narrator gives up trying to fix the tale and gives the two full control, and things quickly get out of hand: Both end up sporting mustaches, there’s a unicorn named Fluffybottom, and the kids are reunited with their completely innocent parents. Taylor’s digital illustrations take the loony text several steps farther, and readers will enjoy the cameos from characters from other familiar tales. Hansel, Gretel, and their parents present white, and the witch is literally white, with a long, pink nose.
A twisted take on an old standard that just may have readers rewriting their own favorites. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5039-0294-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Skip it
This book wants to be feminist.
Princess Penelope Pineapple, illustrated as a white girl with dark hair and eyes, is the Amelia Bloomer of the Pineapple Kingdom. She has dresses, but she prefers to wear pants as she engages in myriad activities ranging from yoga to gardening, from piloting a plane to hosting a science fair. When it’s time for the Pineapple Ball, she imagines wearing a sparkly pants outfit, but she worries about Grand Lady Busyboots’ disapproval: “ ‘Pants have no place on a lady!’ she’d say. / ‘That’s how it has been, and that’s how it shall stay.’ ” In a moment of seeming dissonance between the text and art, Penny seems to resolve to wear pants, but then she shows up to the ball in a gown. This apparent contradiction is resolved when the family cat, Miss Fussywiggles, falls from the castle into the moat and Princess Penelope saves her—after stripping off her gown to reveal pink, flowered swimming trunks and a matching top. Impressed, Grand Lady Busyboots resolves that princesses can henceforth wear whatever they wish. While seeing a princess as savior rather than damsel in distress may still seem novel, it seems a stretch to cast pants-wearing as a broadly contested contemporary American feminist issue. Guthrie and Oppenheim’s unimaginative, singsong rhyme is matched in subtlety by Byrne’s bright illustrations.
Skip it . (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2603-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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