A whimsical delight with well-written verse, excellent illustrations, and appealing characters.
An aristocratic but abandoned bathtub is taken home by a family of bears in this amusing illustrated children’s book.
As told in rhymed verse, an old bathtub left to molder in the forest is taken home by a family of three bears, who are very proud of this acquisition, dubbing it Sir Reginald Tubb—although they aren’t sure of its use. Garbage bin? Peony planter? Kettledrum? Poor Sir Reginald endures many uncomfortable, undignified moments, but at last the plumber-bear arrives and connects the pipes. The bear family greatly enjoys their new bathtub, especially the cub. His imaginative games, like pretending the tub is a magic ship, please Sir Reginald as well: “For this the tub was born and bred, / His life had never been nicer.” When the drain clogs, the tub fears being discarded in the forest again, but the plumber comes to the rescue, and now Sir Reginald lives “splashily ever after.” Everything works in Schacker’s debut book. His rollicking verse is clever, fresh, appealing, and very funny. Serious matters underlie the fun, such as the tub’s loneliness and his existential dilemma (what is his purpose in life?), giving the book unexpected depth. The charming illustrations (with color by Faber) are well-detailed and dynamic as well as expressive. Seemann (Desdemona Saves the Day, 1992) manages to make a bathtub one of the book’s most animated characters. The book’s moral is a useful one: “Have faith—and call the plumber.”
A whimsical delight with well-written verse, excellent illustrations, and appealing characters.Pub Date: April 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5450-8182-2
Page Count: 38
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
