Angry that he’s not growing up fast enough, little Olie has a “big and really bad idea.” But the button he pushes on the household “shrink-and-grow-a-lator” turns out to be the wrong one, and suddenly he’s the size of one of his kid sister Zowie’s toys. So he tries again, and this time swells up so huge that he bonks his head on the moon and burns his bottom on the sun. Olie may sound a bit precious—“I’m a little bit bigger / not a little bit smaller. / I’m a little bit taller— / I’m growing Rolie up!”—but his fourth outing, set in a digitally created alien world of rubber spheres and gleaming plastic, all in saturated hues, features Joyce’s (Sleepy Time Olie, 2001, etc.) trademark blend of the offbeat and the familiar. In the end, a chastened Olie returns to normal, with parental help, and settles down in a bed that’s “just big enough . . . for now.” Like Olie’s previous appearances, in print and on TV, the episode is neatly cut and dried, but Olie’s frustrated reaction to being told that he’s too small for this, but too big to do that any more, will find an understanding corps of young readers. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-008810-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip. The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface. Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Floyd and Denise update “The Tortoise and the Hare” for primary readers, captioning each soft-focus, semi-rural scene with a short, simple sentence or two. Rabbit proposes running to school, while his friend Turtle takes the bus: no contest at first, as the bus makes stop after deliberate stop, but because Rabbit pauses at a pushcart for a snack, a fresh-looking Turtle greets his panting, disheveled friend on the school steps. There is no explicit moral, but children will get the point—and go on to enjoy Margery Cuyler’s longer and wilder Road Signs: A Harey Race with a Tortoise (p. 957). (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-202679-7
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
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