A jolly British lark but with somewhat limited educational value.
In a second wacky tale about the British monarch, Antony shows the high jinks that ensue when the queen’s most precious accessory is snatched by a swan.
The cartoonish queen figure and her corgi give chase through the streets of London and all over Britain, pursued by an ever growing phalanx of uniformed police officers. From London, the energetic royal and her dog drive through Stonehenge, bike to the white cliffs of Dover, fly to Oxford, parachute into Snowdonia, navigate the Giant’s Causeway in a boat, catch a train past the Angel of the North to Edinburgh Castle, and ride back to London on horseback. The sneaky swan is finally apprehended at the finish line of the London Marathon. As in predecessor The Queen’s Hat (2015), the police appear to be identical, but on closer inspection there are amusing variations: a druid appears in Stonehenge, the Mad Hatter rides a bike, one wears a kilt and another’s in Union Jack underwear, and a camel and a panda can be found in the marathon crowd. Kids will enjoy the opportunities for Where’s Waldo–style observation in the neat, repetitive colored-pencil drawings, which continue from the cover throughout the book, including front and rear endpapers. Brief closing notes on the landmarks depicted follow the caper, but they won’t do much to fill in the gaps for readers unfamiliar with the geography.
A jolly British lark but with somewhat limited educational value. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: May 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-03293-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Momo longed to carry the blue umbrella and wear the bright red rubber boots she had been given on her third birthday. But day after day Indian summer continued. Momo tried to tell mother she needed to carry the umbrella to nursery school because the sunshine bothered her eyes. But Mother didn't let her use the umbrella then or when she said the wind bothered her. At last, though, rain fell on the city pavements and Momo carried her umbrella and wore her red boots to school. One feels the urgency of Momo's wish. The pictures are full of the city's moods and the child's joy in a rainy day.
Pub Date: March 1, 1958
ISBN: 978-0-14-050240-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1958
Superheroes, and readers, will live happily-ever-after.
Why have fairy tales lasted so long? Maybe it’s because they change with every teller.
It takes surprisingly little effort to turn the Three Little Pigs into superheroes. The Big Bad Wolf basically started out as a supervillain, with the ability to blow a house down, and the pigs had to perform spectacular feats to outwit him. In this picture book, the wolf, locked in the Happily Never After tower, devises a plot to escape. Using rotten eggs and spicy ginger, he creates the Gingerbread Man, who makes his way to a baking contest where the three pigs and other fairy-tale characters are competing to win the key to the city. The Gingerbread Man grabs the key, and not even superhero pigs are fast enough to catch him, but with their secret weapon—mustard (which one of the pigs also uses to bake cookies)—they save the day. The morals: Evil never triumphs, and mustard cookies are delicious. The book’s charm is in the details. There are splotches of mustard on the cookies featured on the endpapers, and a sly-looking mouse is hiding on many of the pages. The story even manages to include more than a dozen fairy-tale figures without seeming frenzied. Evans’ use of shading is so skillful that it almost seems possible to reach out and touch the characters. Most of the human characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Superheroes, and readers, will live happily-ever-after. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-68221-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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