While repeated readings won’t offer surprise, squeals of laughter are assured.
The story opens with the trope of a longed-for child and has as many twists as a pig’s tail.
White Mrs. Tati echoes numerous folk-tale characters when she cries, “I wish we had a sweet little baby!” and in the story’s first twist, white Mr. Tati searches for one at a Baby Shop. After learning they sell baby supplies but not babies, he encounters a street pig vendor and impulsively buys one on his way home. Mrs. Tati is delighted. They name him Potter and raise him like a baby, clothing him, feeding him with a bottle, wearing him in a baby-carrier, and letting him sleep in their bed. When he’s ready for school they outfit him with new clothes and supplies, and he’s depicted as bipedal and utterly anthropomorphic. Nevertheless, the headmistress says the school isn’t for pigs, and despite initial disappointment, the Tatis let Potter lead a piggish life of playing in mud, sleeping outside in hay, and eschewing clothing. Potter seems pleased, but Mrs. Tati still wishes he were a child who looked like them, and digital illustrations show a vision of Potter’s Pinocchio-like transformation into a real boy. After he reiterates his wife’s wish to the stars, Mr. Tati effects his own surprising transformation and hers—when they become pigs like their beloved Potter.
While repeated readings won’t offer surprise, squeals of laughter are assured. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-910959-99-2
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Otter-Barry
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
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
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends.
Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both!
Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET!’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘Beep!’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘Beep.’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank.
A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-85213-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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