In a version of the Indian fable “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” an assortment of jungle animals plays a blindfolded guessing game.
The story begins wordlessly with the lion giving each animal a blindfold before leading the elephant to another area. Blindfolded, the lion cub feels the elephant’s leg and declares, “It is a tree.” Readers will immediately see the illustration of a tree trunk within the speech bubble and understand how the cub came to that conclusion. Next, comically balancing atop a ladder, the blindfolded giraffe feels what must be a wall but is in reality the elephant’s flat side. The game continues with the hippo mistaking the elephant’s trunk for a snake; the crocodile, a wrinkled ear for a fan; the zebra, the tail for a rope; and the turtle, a tusk for a pipe. Each of these guesses is expressed in a simple sentence beginning “It is a…” with a visual of the animal’s guess to provide picture cues for emerging readers. A final review lists each word next to its position on an elephant-shaped brick wall with tree-trunk legs, a rope tail, two fans, and a befuddled snake dangling between two pipes. But as readers turn the page, the now-cheering friends, blindfolds off, reveal, “It is an elephant.” The amusing cartoon artwork makes for an excellent enhancement. The story’s origins are revealed only in the cataloging-in-publication statement.
Cleverly designed for new readers’ success. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4531-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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A lad finds a penguin on his doorstep and resolutely sets out to return it in this briefly told import.
Eventually, he ends up rowing it all the way back to Antarctica, braving waves and storms, filling in the time by telling it stories. But then, feeling lonely after he drops his silent charge off, he belatedly realizes that it was probably lonely too, and turns back to find it. Seeing Jeffers’s small, distant figures in wide, simply brushed land- and sea-scapes, young viewers will probably cotton to the penguin’s feelings before the boy himself does—but all’s well that ends well, and the reunited companions are last seen adrift together in the wide blue sea.
Readers who (inexplicably) find David Lawrence’s Pickle and Penguin (2004) just too weird may settle in more comfortably with this—slightly—less offbeat friendship tale. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24503-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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