Unexceptional despite the addenda and likely to be overshadowed.
Heartlessness leads to leaflessness for trees that refuse to shelter an injured sparrow for the winter.
Of (possibly, according to the source note) Cherokee origin, the tale opens with Papa Sparrow, one wing injured, sending his family south and then seeking shelter from, respectively, Maple, Oak, and Willow. All three rudely reject him, but Pine, Spruce, and Juniper are more welcoming. That night, at the behest of irritated King Forest, Winter Wind denudes the uncharitable trio—who have continued to lose their leaves in wintertime ever since. Chriscoe’s retelling flows on a gentle rhythm fueled by recurring phrases, but some passages have an artificial ring: “And how do I know you won’t damage my lovely, gorgeous leaves?” Willow complains. “You may not stay for the winter in my gentle, hanging foliage.” Moreover, though the sparrow and closer views of leaves and twigs are realistically drawn, the personified trees in Detwiler’s illustrations sport cartoonish Green Man–style faces with exaggerated grimaces or grins. Pages of nature facts and study questions follow the tale. Alexis York Lumbard’s Pine and the Winter Sparrow, illustrated by Beatriz Vidal (2015), presents a better written and more appealingly illustrated version of the same story.
Unexceptional despite the addenda and likely to be overshadowed. (bibliography) (Picture book/folk tale. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62855-633-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names...
A lad finds a big red dragon in his basement and wisely seeks expert advice about its care and feeding in this epistolary episode.
Young Alexander’s missives (there are no cellphones, nor parents, in sight) are mostly paraphrased rather than shown, but each response comes as a small note folded into a pocket that’s been printed and shaped like an envelope: “Douse it in water right away!” writes panic-stricken fire chief H.Y. Drant; find it a large house or castle, advises B. East of World Animal Welfare; “fatten it up,” suggests Angus Teak the butcher (“Look forward to [eating, scratched out] meeting your dragon”) with sinister relish. Boy and dragon have wonderful times together, but the ultimate realization that dragons really don’t make good pets leads the narrator to follow the written advice of best friend Hillary (“the wisest person I knew”) and set it free. The later arrival of a slightly burned picture postcard in the “post” reassures him that the dragon won’t be forgetting to keep in touch. The human figures in Yarlett’s cartoon illustrations are either white or have their heads cut off at the page top. With the exception of the pasted-on postcard from the dragon at the end, all of the correspondence is removable and thereby losable.
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names add some appeal. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-818-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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