A one-note “fable” extols the value of stories to an audience that probably doesn’t really need to hear it. Every Sunday, Leopold holds forth in the Leipzig zoo, telling alliterative tales of fabulous lands to the assembled multitudes: “In the country of Carthaginia cats catch caterpillars and cook them in casseroles in costly cafés.” But when Doctor Doctor Professor Morganfresser comes to town to lecture—accurately—he puts his audience to sleep. Enraged, he hauls Leopold before the courts, accusing him of lying, but Leopold has a quick comeback: “You can make up all sorts of fantastic things, and unless you say that it actually happened, or that you actually saw something—it’s only a STORY.” The learned doctor leaves town in disgrace and Leopold returns to the zoo. Leaving aside the implication that the truth must be devoid of interest, the tale’s dismissal of the power of the imagination as “only a story” seems to be at odds with the message it’s trying to send. Aviram’s textured, folk-arty illustrations are full of color and movement, in sad contrast to the text they are paired with. The subject of storytelling deserves better stories. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-008075-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
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
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