In this wickedly humorous tale about the importance of manners, Bloom (The Bus for Us, not reviewed, etc.) brings the reader into Mrs. Hubbub’s classroom, where the children spend the day learning an unforgettable lesson in respect. In rhyming fashion, the reader discovers a selfish bunch of classmates who have forgotten such cooperative lessons as sharing, taking turns, and saying “please.” Without regard for being polite, each child, limb by limb, begins transforming into a pig. “Meanwhile Tommy picked his nose and found he’d grown a snout.” In place of hands there are hooves, then long, pointed ears and squiggly tails complete the picture. Their speech becomes nothing more than a grunt. When the school nurse determines that this is a job for a specialist, Pig Lady is called to the rescue. She does a wonderful job at helping the children discover for themselves how much more pleasing people and relationships are when good manners are used. With each good deed, pig parts begin to disappear, and when all the children are human once again, they recall what they learned and get along. Bloom illustrates with richly colored gouache and colored pencils on solid white paper, creating the figures in a variety of schoolhouse settings. The shadowing is scarce, giving the illusion that everything is suspended in air. Blending the two art forms helps create bold contrasts, and black line lends definition to the work. A needed theme with enough wit to make it palatable. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8075-6529-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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