A visual delight.
A pixie family struggles to find a new home.
Mother and Father pixie and their 12 children need another place to live: With winter setting in, their apple tree no longer provides adequate shelter. Two of the boys, twins Button and Popper, sneak out early one morning, but all the people they ask about accommodations are aghast at the size of their family and have no idea where they could possibly go. Mistakenly carried home in a basket by an absent-minded professor and placed in his cellar, the adventuresome duo escapes and returns to the market to retrieve the professor’s actual basket, left behind when he picked up the wrong one. They deliver it back to him, whereupon he offers them use of his home until the spring. The family rejoices. Illustrated in saturated shades of yellow, orange, and black with simple geometric shapes and line designs reminiscent of Marimekko textiles, this 1960s reissue from Finland possesses retro charm. The pixies wear pointed hats with bobbles on top. While gender is ambiguous for most of the children, it’s the male characters who tend to demonstrate agency. Skin tone is mostly white but occasionally orange, yellow, or black. Inquisitive readers may wonder where the family lived the previous winter as well as about the scale of the pixies’ world (Button slips an apple into his pocket but later appears to be about the size of the professor’s bottle of juice). However, this simple story is sweet and appealing.
A visual delight. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-500-65201-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The action of this rhymed and humorous tale centers upon a mouse who "took a stroll/through the deep dark wood./A fox saw the mouse/and the mouse looked good." The mouse escapes being eaten by telling the fox that he is on his way to meet his friend the gruffalo (a monster of his imagination), whose favorite food is roasted fox. The fox beats a hasty retreat. Similar escapes are in store for an owl and a snake; both hightail it when they learn the particulars: tusks, claws, terrible jaws, eyes orange, tongue black, purple prickles on its back. When the gruffalo suddenly materializes out of the mouse's head and into the forest, the mouse has to think quick, declaring himself inedible as the "scariest creature in the deep dark wood," and inviting the gruffalo to follow him to witness the effect he has on the other creatures. When the gruffalo hears that the mouse's favorite food is gruffalo crumble, he runs away. It's a fairly innocuous tale, with twists that aren't sharp enough and treachery that has no punch. Scheffler's funny scenes prevent the suspense from culminating; all his creatures, predator and prey, are downright lovable. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8037-2386-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1999
SEEN & HEARD
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