Dorros (Ten Go Tango, 2000, etc.) lets loose his usual bright humor, lively narrative, and momentum—here paired with the shining colors and kinetic characters in Greenseid’s (Chicken For a Day, not reviewed, etc.) art—but he beats an aggravating one-note tune with his Spanish lesson. Don Carlos can’t get enough, of everything: hats, ice cream, music, or choices of dishes for the menu at his village restaurant. Más, más, más is his leitmotif. When his younger brother, Alonzo, suggests that Don Carlos serve snails in his restaurant, he orders wheelbarrow loads: “Más.” When the profusion of snails run amok, Alonzo recommends birds to control them. “Más,” commands Don Carlos, then lots of pigs to control the birds. “Más.” Only when Alonzo forms a band—a bunch of dreadful hacks to accompany his heavenly violin—to serenade the pigs out of town, à la the Pied Piper, does Don Carlos beg for less: less earsplitting music. The point, of course, is that more is not necessarily better—in this case never, and the same applies to Don Carlos, whom readers will have had enough of shortly after his introduction. Thanks then to the rest of the trippingly fun story for keeping the book afloat. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-42030-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
Turkey’s in the “kind of trouble where it’s almost Thanksgiving...and you’re the main course.” Accordingly, Turkey tries on disguise after disguise, from horse to cow to pig to sheep, at each iteration being told that he looks nothing like the animal he’s trying to mimic (which is quite true, as Harper’s quirky watercolors make crystal clear). He desperately squeezes a red rubber glove onto his head to pass as a rooster, only to overhear the farmer suggest a poultry plan B when he’s unable to turn up the turkey. Turkey’s horrified expression as he stands among the peppers and tomatoes—in November? Chalk it up to artistic license—is priceless, but his surroundings give him an idea. Good fun, but it may lead to a vegetarian table or two. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5529-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2009
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
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