A fine addition to the fractured-fairy-tale shelf, though it does lack that certain something that made Eugene Trivizas’ The...
The classic fairy tale gets an update with a subtle message about healthy eating and a happy ending for a hungry wolf.
When the owner of the farm decides to sell and move to Florida, he gives his three (anthropomorphized) pigs their pay and sends them on their way. The junk-food–loving brothers listen to their sister and reluctantly agree to buy building materials with their money…but straw and sticks are so cheap they have enough left for potato chips and “sody-pop.” Meanwhile, the sister works on her brick house and healthy garden. When a hungry wolf comes to town and is rebuffed at all its eating establishments, he takes his anger out on the brothers, who smell deliciously like pig and whose houses don’t stand a chance. But all his huffing and puffing at the sister’s house, combined with his hunger, makes him pass out. In an ending that may remind readers of Gail Carson Levine’s Betsy Who Cried Wolf, illustrated by Scott Nash (2002), the pigs revive, feed and befriend him. Teague’s oil paintings are marvelously detailed and brightly colored. His pigs are full of personality, and their human traits and accessories are sure to delight.
A fine addition to the fractured-fairy-tale shelf, though it does lack that certain something that made Eugene Trivizas’ The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (1993), such a standout. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-439-91501-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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