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MARTHA THE PIG

Name: MARTHA THE PIG
Author: William J. Jr. Vosper
ISBN: 17.99

by William J. Jr. Vosper ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Despite generic prose and plot, Martha the Pig contains at least a smile or two.

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A mischievous pig gets into all sorts of trouble in a mildly amusing animal fantasy.

Martha begins life ignominiously as the runt of the litter. Her brothers and sisters push her aside at mealtimes, further stunting her growth and deepening her hunger. But Aunt Kate is quick to notice that Martha isn’t growing as a healthy pig should. The kind-hearted woman takes a shine to Martha and begins hand-feeding her plump pink shrimp while the others are left to plow through an unsavory blend of scraps and leftovers. Simple humorous illustrations include an obvious nod to Charlotte’s Web: Martha stands in the barnyard door, a spider’s web stretched across one corner. But any similarities between Vosper’s Martha and the children’s classic end here. The adorable hot pink pig depicted in illustrations of baby Martha soon gives way to portraits of a big, bossy and remarkably less-adorable hog. Martha’s antics soon get her into trouble with her fellow farm animals and the doting Aunt Kate. Tom the Turkey doesn’t appreciate Martha’s merciless teasing; she constantly pesters him by pulling at his tail feathers with her teeth. Nor is Aunt Kate impressed with the once vulnerable Martha after the pig goes on a rampage and ruins her backyard party. Aunt Kate’s crime? She forgot to feed Martha her customary shrimp dinner in the frenzy of preparations. A subsequent scene in which Martha attacks a grumpy bull by grabbing at his throat is particularly jarring and inappropriately violent for the book’s intended audience of preschool readers. Why Martha’s destructiveness and selfishness are tolerated for so long is unclear; her behavior toward the other barn animals is, for the most part, so mean-spirited that there is little to endear her to the reader.

Despite generic prose and plot, Martha the Pig contains at least a smile or two.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 17.99

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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LAUGH-ETERIA

by Douglas Florian ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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Florian’s seventh collection of verse is also his most uneven; though the flair for clever rhyme that consistently lights up his other books, beginning with Monster Motel (1993), occasionally shows itself—“Hello, my name is Dracula/My clothing is all blackula./I drive a Cadillacula./I am a maniacula”—too many of the entries are routine limericks, putdowns, character portraits, rhymed lists that fall flat on the ear, or quick quips: “It’s hard to be anonymous/When you’re a hippopotamus.” Florian’s language and simple, thick-lined cartoons illustrations are equally ingenuous, and he sticks to tried-and-true subjects, from dinosaurs to school lunch, but the well of inspiration seems dry; revisit his hilarious Bing Bang Boing (1994) instead. (index) (Poetry. 8-10)

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-15-202084-5

Page Count: 158

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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NIGHTS IN RODANTHE

by Nicholas Sparks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2002

Short, to the point, and absolutely unremarkable: sure to be another medium-hot romance-lite hit for Sparks, who at the very...

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A mother unburdens a story of past romance to her troubled daughter for no good reason.

Adrienne Willis is a middle-aged mother with three kids who, not surprisingly, finds herself in an emotional lurch after her husband dumps her for a younger, prettier thing. Needing to recharge her batteries, Adrienne takes a holiday, watching over her friend’s small bed-and-breakfast in the North Carolina beach town of Rodanthe. Then Dr. Paul Flanner appears, himself a cold fish in need of a little warming up. This is the scene laid out by Adrienne to her daughter, Amanda, in a framing device of unusual crudity from Sparks (A Bend in the Road, 2001, etc.). Amanda’s husband has recently died and she hasn’t quite gotten around to figuring out how to keep on living. Imagining that nothing is better for a broken heart than somebody else’s sad story, Adrienne tells her daughter about the great lost love of her life. Paul came to Rodanthe in order to speak with the bereaved family of a woman who had just died after he had operated on her. Paul, of course, was not to blame, but still he suffers inside. Add to that a recent divorce and an estranged child and the result is a tortured soul whom Adrienne finds absolutely irresistible. Of course, the beach, an impending storm, the fact that there are no other visitors around, a roaring fireplace, and any number of moments that could have been culled from a J. Crew catalogue and a Folgers’s commercial make romance just about inevitable. Sparks couldn’t be less subtle in this harshly mechanical story that adheres to formula in a way that would make an assembly-line romance writer blush.

Short, to the point, and absolutely unremarkable: sure to be another medium-hot romance-lite hit for Sparks, who at the very least can never be accused of overstaying his welcome.