More food play from the creators of How Are You Peeling? (1999), featuring an all-pumpkin cast photographed against monochromatic backgrounds. When Dr. Pompo finds a twisted bit of detritus, everyone has an opinion about what it is: a garden tool; a horn for calling sheep; a goat’s horn; a fossil. As the doctor knows, though, it’s actually a nose—and along comes Ms. Sniffen to reclaim it: “Good Hebbins . . . and how do you subboze / I lost it ober dare?” Taking brilliant advantage of each pumpkin’s distinctive shape and wrinkles, the authors carve only eyes and mouths, but evoke an astonishing range of expressions and personalities—capped by a populous pumpkin gallery on the endpapers that, alone, is worth the price of admission. In a final twist that will sure to set off giggles, the doctor reattaches Ms. Sniffen’s nose—backwards, by its thinner end. The short, rhymed text is a bit klunky, but the pictures are more than strong enough to compensate. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-11013-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2000
An impending school visit by a celebrity chef sends budding cook Ollie into a tailspin. He and his classmates are supposed to bring a favorite family food for show and tell, but his family doesn’t have a clear choice—besides, his little sister Rosy doesn’t like much of anything. What to do? As in their previous two visits to Room 75, Kenah builds suspense while keeping the tone light, and Carter adds both bright notes of color and familiar home and school settings in her cartoon illustrations. Eventually, Ollie winkles favorite ingredients out of his clan, which he combines into a mac-and-cheese casserole with a face on top that draws delighted praise from the class’s renowned guest. As Ollie seems to do his kitchen work without parental assistance, a cautionary tip or two (and maybe a recipe) might not have gone amiss here, but the episode’s mouthwatering climax and resolution will guarantee smiles of contentment all around. (Easy reader. 6-7)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-053561-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina...
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up.
Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields.
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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