Required reading for all children who have ever grumbled that "grownups get to have all the fun." Once they realize, through this litany, that "grown-ups have aches and pains. . . . can take out their teeth . . . snore . . . get headaches . . . wrinkles" and ". . . take a lot of pills," they may want to stay children forever. Adults are also "mean . . . rude . . . cheapskates" who "hate to pay their taxes" but "like to punish people." Steig moderates his venting in the full-page cartoons, rendered with characteristic simplicity; the grownups are seen as slightly foolish figures whose foibles amuse — or only slightly annoy — the children around them. Reductio ad absurdum, of course, and if the relentlessness of the mockery grates, the clever ways the illustrations elaborate on the generalizations should elicit a few chuckles. Even minor Steig is memorable. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-205080-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
Loosely arranged around a birthday celebration, this meandering tale never finds its focus. Lizzie is stranded on a deserted island with nothing but her “ever-busy scientist” parents and a giant computer. In her frustration and loneliness, she and her pal Starfish decide to run away. Se§or Mundo (a personified cartoon of Earth) offers them a place to go—the entire world. Other planets vie for her attention, slinging insults at each other until Lizzie chooses Mars for its red color. Hurled through space, she finds Mars to be inhospitable and has to be rescued by Se§or Mundo. Following side trips under the sea and into the jungle, Lizzie returns for a no-place-like-home birthday bash. Whiny Lizzie is impossible to like; Mariscal’s cartoons have the energetic lines of comic-book art, and provide a fun grand finale. The book never achieves magic, but offers some satisfying glimpses of real adventure. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-8109-4176-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998
A distinctly Seussian flavor pervades this rollicking rhymed-prose debut. Young Miles saunters into a shoe store and informs the clerk that he wants a pair of red sneakers with some special attributes, namely, “long attachable toes for building tree houses with views of rainbows . . . bouncers for jumping and soaring, with oversized pouncers for safely exploring basketball hoops, rooftops and stars,” as well as with wheels, umbrellas, big erasers, and other options. The illustrator suits action to words in speckled, busy cartoon illustrations, in which Miles is envisioned in the shoes of his dreams, kicking back triumphantly as one attachment after another sprouts from his hightops. When the salesman regretfully tells him that they have the style he’s seeking, but not in red, Miles’s disappointment lasts but a moment, and he sails out of the store in a pair of rocket-assisted blue sandals. Readers will never look at their footwear in quite the same way. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-531-30104-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1998
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