Unusual and strikingly lovely black-and-white illustrations can’t save a problematic storyline.
A dog nudges her way out the door of her human’s home to investigate the night.
As Dog explores, she encounters and befriends “someone WILD,” illustrated as a wolf or perhaps a coyote. They chase a rabbit together, and when daylight comes, Dog, all tuckered out, falls asleep back home. The striking thing about this story is the unusual black-and-white illustrations that are created using brushed graphite powder, pencil, and erasure on paper. Their soft, atmospheric mood and their design and distribution—full-bleed double-page spreads, single-page bleeds, and, particularly, a few stellar sequences in which multiple iterations of characters denote action—show author/illustrator Poster’s skill in telling a story with pictures. Unfortunately, the story itself has problems. Since the animals—raccoons, a bear, rabbits, the coyote or wolf, among others—are depicted behaving as animals do and not anthropomorphically, the story can’t be interpreted as a fantasy. And to romanticize a scenario in which a small domestic dog encountering a larger, wild canine would have a romp and a bit of friendship is fundamentally misleading. In the real nighttime world, the dog would more likely become the other canine’s dinner, so here’s hoping readers won’t take it into their heads to send their pet dog or cat out into the night to have a lovely adventure. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Unusual and strikingly lovely black-and-white illustrations can’t save a problematic storyline. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-525-55378-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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