Not a whole lot of plot here, but panache aplenty.
In this latest, delightfully droll episode, readers find their precocious pig suffering from an identity crisis.
While all the other girls she knows, and even some of the boys, dress as ruffled pink princesses for parties and desperately want to be fairy princess ballerinas, Olivia’s aspirations are more sui(or sooey?) generis. She may have wanted to be a ballerina once. But that was last year, when she was too young to know better. Now, on an uproarious two-page spread that depicts her in a series of Martha Graham–style postures, Olivia explains that she is “trying to develop a more stark, modern style.” Befittingly, a framed photograph of Graham is in clear view above Olivia’s bed as her understandably exasperated mother attempts to read to her from a book of fairy tales. Olivia rejects Rapunzel because she ends up becoming a princess, but she quickly realizes that she wouldn’t want to be the little match girl freezing in the snow either. Olivia’s whirring brain begins to consider what she might like to be instead—a nurse or a reporter perhaps? Her ultimate choice is quintessentially Olivia. Falconer’s charcoal-and-gouache illustrations, black and white with splashes of color interspersed, showcase Olivia’s unique spirit and dramatic flair.
Not a whole lot of plot here, but panache aplenty. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5027-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
IN THE NEWS
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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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