More hilarious, high-energy, hammed-up hijinks.
Holy sequel, Batpig!
In this thoroughly enjoyable graphic follow-up to Batpig: When Pigs Fly (2021), Gary the pig and his alter ego, Batpig, return for more goofy adventures. Harrell’s tale is broken into three vignettes consisting of two longer chapters and a shorter interstitial section. In “The Class That Wouldn’t End!” Gary and his best friends, Brooklyn (a bat) and Carl (a fish), head to math class, and it seems like time is barely passing. They’re caught in a collective haze of boredom—even Brooklyn, who loves math, notices it. The trio soon discovers that time is slowly inching along thanks to the evil, vengeful Time Guy (the name Timekeeper was already taken). Batpig must now figure out how to make time fly if they ever want to escape the monotony of endless fractions. The briefer middle story, “Aquarium Dreams,” stars Brooklyn and Carl and sets the stage for the final tale, “Lights, Camera, Chaos!” This closing story is a comedic delight, with a pompous Hollywood superhero, meddling pastel aliens, a giant kitten/bee chimera (adorably monikered the Bumblekitten), and a deluge of stinky gym socks. No sophomore slump here: Harrell’s newest offering blends snicker-suffused action with a gentle emphasis on the importance of friendship. In Gary’s world, animals and humans coexist; humans (both young and old) are depicted with a range of skin tones.
More hilarious, high-energy, hammed-up hijinks. (Graphic fiction. 7-12)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35420-9
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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