Christelow’s jolly tale revisits Bert, Ethel, and the troublemaking pigs from The Great Escape (1994). Once again the pigs have fled Bert and Ethel’s Vermont farm, “ ‘without so much as a thank-you,’ ” grumbles Bert. But Bert can’t shake the pigs escape from his mind, nor the mysterious postcard sent from Florida with the message “Oink!” Ethel recommends a holiday, and Bert buys tickets for Florida. Once there, he drives Ethel (and not a few Floridians) crazy with his incessant pig search. (Not that young readers will rest any easier as they ferret out the porkers hiding under sunbonnets and behind palm trees.) Bert never does see the pigs right under his own nose—C’mon Bert, that cabbie has cloven hands on the wheel—until it’s too late. Maybe they’ll send him another postcard. Christelow’s squiggly lines and dabs of bright watercolor are a perfect counterpoint to the deadpan text, which will have readers rooting for the pigs and laughing as the hapless Bert finds nothing but trouble in this snorter of a hide-and-seek picture book. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-04910-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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