Lovers of fractured fairy tales will be amused by this further peek into the personal letters of familiar characters by the team that started it all with Dear Peter Rabbit (1994). Ms. Red Hen has just moved to Happy Valley with her brood of chicks, but her neighbors are proving to be less than neighborly. While she slaves away in her cornfield, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks band together with the Three Pigs and Peter Rabbit to lend her a hand. Meanwhile, fed up with the trouble of trying to eat rabbits and pigs, the forest carnivores have devious plans of their own. With the help of the amateur spy Lazy Feline, Wolfy Lupus, and Fer O’Cious let the family get plump and fat on the corn. But Wolfy just can’t wait to feast and decides to prey on Hetty Hen—with disastrous results. When all is said and done, chicken is added to the list of foresworn foods for the unfortunate carnivores. The aptly named characters and addresses will delight language lovers—Turkey Lurkey, M.D., lives on Ailments Road and the “temporary” addresses of Pig One and Pig Two are listed in the Hidden Forest Directory. Readers will enjoy recalling the details of each individual character’s fairy tale from the cleverly embedded “facts” Ada sprinkles throughout the letters. While this is a great introduction to letter-writing, young readers may have trouble with this format, and will need to be kept aware of the writer and recipient of each letter. Known for both the two previous titles in this series and the Albert series of books, Tryon’s detailed illustrations fit the letters perfectly, and close observers will discover something new with each reading. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82581-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
None
One more myth dispelled for all the students who believe that their teachers live in their classrooms. During the last week of school, Mrs. Hartwell and her students reflect on the things they will miss, while also looking forward to the fun that summer will bring. The kids want to cheer up their teacher, whom they imagine will be crying over lesson plans and missing them all summer long. But what gift will cheer her up? Numerous ideas are rejected, until Eddie comes up with the perfect plan. They all cooperate to create a rhyming ode to the school year and their teacher. Love’s renderings of the children are realistic, portraying the diversity of modern-day classrooms, from dress and expression to gender and skin color. She perfectly captures the emotional trauma the students imagine their teachers will go through as they leave for the summer. Her final illustration hysterically shatters that myth, and will have every teacher cheering aloud. What a perfect end to the school year. (Picture book. 5-8)
None NonePub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58089-046-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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