Puffed-up, peg-legged, hawk-nosed Peter Stuyvesant, a feather in his wide-brimmed hat, a buckle on his boot, could be the Captain of the Pinafore the way he self-asserts: he makes a great, grand entrance and Lobel makes it rhyme. "'My friends,' Peter said, 'it is nice to be here/ For my voyage was really a long one./ I will rule this new land with a very firm hand,/ And my government will be a strong one./ Yes, my government will be a strong one.'" For those who don't know about the order he made out of the chaos that was New Amsterdam, Mr. Lobel provides a factual preface, but this Peter Stuyvesant is no textbook governor: no, no textbook governor would sit in the street ("a goat from behind, in a manner unkind,/ Gave Peter a push on his seat"). "'This New World is a mess!' Peter cried in distress-/ 'These animals need gates and fences./ Take these birds to a cage!' Peter shouted in rage./ 'Oh, good Dutchmen, let's come to our senses!'" They do, after hemming and hawing (it's all in the drawing), and then "'Let us have a big Dutch celebration!'" — at which "Someone asked, 'Will the town stay as small as it is?'" and old Stuyvesant uses his bedtime imagination. He "knew he was dreaming" and what does he dream but Manhattan today (again, pictured); and what indeed could better consummate what is what else but the jauntiest Pilgrim's Progress on record? Droll, too.
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 1971
ISBN: 0064431444
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1971
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The glowing friendship of Frog and Toad continues, with Frog as the wiser, supportive partner easing Toad through his small frustrations and uncertainties. Frog plays the sympathetic sounding board while Toad convinces himself to clean house today and take it easy tomorrow instead of the other way round; he encourages Toad through a fourth and finally successful try at kite flying despite the robins' ridicule; he scares himself and Toad with a shivery ghost story that might or might not have happened to him; and, less admirably perhaps, he shrinks Toad's too-big birthday hat with water while leading his friend to believe that Toad's own big thoughts have enlarged his head. Once more, Lobel leaves the two with their friendship reaffirmed, this time after Toad misinterprets his friend's desire to be alone for a while. As in Frog and Toad All Year (1976) the relationship has settled into a comfortable, conflict-free pattern; but the complementary pair continues to delight and vulnerable Toad to invite sympathetic recognition.
Pub Date: Oct. 3, 1979
ISBN: 081243417X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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