Kids won’t recognize the homage to René Magritte or the elements of King Midas and "The Fisherman and His Wife," they’ll...
What painter wouldn’t be thrilled if everything he painted became real?
Say hello to Mr. Renny, a likable, bug-eyed, floppy-eared dog artist, wearing a one-button yellow jacket over a red-and-white striped tunic. When no one buys his paintings at the market, a strange man tells him to eat the apple in his painting; it turns real, and suddenly all of Mr. Renny’s paintings spring to life. With his new magical touch, he paints all of the things he’s ever wanted: hot dogs, desserts, a car, a ship, etc. However, when his friend Rose wants to buy a real painting, he explains that she can’t. How to fix his dilemma? Aha, he paints the man who began the whole thing to reverse the charm. Everything vanishes, and Rose gets a special painting (a rose). Whimsical illustrations bring the story to life. All of the characters are bug-eyed animals except for the mysterious, bowler-topped man. Scenes are dotted with such clever details as an alligator with a baby buggy holding two watermelons, an elephant with a Burberry plaid wheeled cart and a giraffe driving a speedboat. The appealing cover of Mr. Renny with paintbrush and palette, flying in an airplane will draw attention.
Kids won’t recognize the homage to René Magritte or the elements of King Midas and "The Fisherman and His Wife," they’ll just be busy giggling over the animated images. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-8775-7920-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.
The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina...
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up.
Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields.
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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