While it strives to fit into the cheery mode of The Old Woman and Her Pig, this doesn’t have the simplicity of the classic. Miss Prudence gazes out her window to see a pig eating her flowers and goes out to shoo him away, but instead a rearing horse frightens the pig and she “tumbled through the air and landed on the pig’s back.” As the pig and Miss Prudence race through a town that might be early New York, silk drawers, a clothing bag, a rag doll, a priest’s stole and numerous other items attach themselves to Miss Prudence who is still riding on the pig. At each encounter, Stanek repeats the refrain, “ . . . but the pig ran on,” offering the audience a chance to help tell the story. Finally, the pig races into the Mayor’s office, deposits Miss Prudence and all the accumulated stuff, “and the pig ran on.” While not necessarily a first purchase, there’s potential for a good storyteller to enliven the telling and introduce a small audience to a slice of turn-of-the-century New York. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59572-125-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Star Bright
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008
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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