If Marge Palatini’s Piggie Pie (1995) and Zoom Broom (1998) made your stomach hurt from laughter, you may need medical attention after getting a gander at these porcine takes on five familiar Christmas songs from the same illustrator. Except for “We Wish You a Piggie Christmas,” the words haven’t changed, but seeing a sleigh full of pigs screaming down a snowy slope directly toward disaster (“Jingle Bells”) or bellowing out “Deck the Halls” through mouthfuls of holly and other greens will put these chestnuts in an entirely new light. The centerpiece of the collection is “Twelve Days of Christmas,” in which an unseen benefactor drives a disgruntled porker out of his house with increasingly larger gifts—including a pair of turtles brandishing “Peace Now” signs (get it?), three hens in berets, and dishes of five golden onion rings. Some songs are quite abbreviated and there’s no musical notation. But there will be snorts and chortles galore in this exuberant holiday offering. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7868-0587-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
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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