Underwear stylin’ with Frog—keep an eye out for its contagious fashion statement.
If you were an orange-spotted jungle frog, the last thing you’d want to lose is your underpants.
It is the stuff of troubling dreams, but Frog is taking it fairly well. Sort of. “Hopping through the jungle— / ‘Help me! Help me! / What became of dignity? / They stole my underpants!’ ” Newcomer MacIver can turn a phrase in just the right fashion to find purchase in children’s ears—internal rhymes, couplets, quatrains, some intriguing new vocabulary—and they play nicely with Chapman’s cheery watercolors. Teddy is the first to lend Frog a hand, even though he “hides a smile. / ‘Who would steal your undies? / It’s hardly worth their while.’ ” Frog thinks otherwise: “Every frog would give his legs / to own a pair like these.” Chimpanzee joins the hunt, as does Mr. Elephant: “ ‘How dreadful!’ cries the elephant. ‘Now, please don’t think me rude, / but I am shocked to see a frog / so plainly in the nude.’ ” They find the unmentionables—100 spotted jungle frogs are playing with them—and then have to outfit all the frogs with briefs (made from lakka leaves), which makes Frog unhappy, as he is no longer unique. His inspired act of self-expression: He’ll wear his backward. Sure, it’s cockamamie, but it takes on life when set to the music of rhyme and rhythm. A guffawing read-along with a smart taste for verbiage.
Underwear stylin’ with Frog—keep an eye out for its contagious fashion statement. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6782-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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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