Another hilarious outing with this deliciously naughty dog.
You got schooled!
Pig the Pug is back for another off-kilter adventure, and this time he’s a doggie school dropout. After off-page antics that leave his owner’s home a mess, Pig is shipped off to Big Jean’s Dog Obedience School, where the institution’s “No job too tough” motto finally meets its match. Pig joins a cohort of equally uncouth pups but doesn’t advance further than the first lesson before he organizes a revolt. Mayhem ensues, and Pig ends up looking like his namesake after an accident with a few pink cakes and a tank of flammable gas. Thankfully, though, some lessons were learned and the book ends on a positive note. The story and the illustrations—rendered in acrylic with pens and pencils—are just as zany as readers would expect, and educators and librarians will revel in reading the book aloud. The plot moves at a breakneck pace; as a result, Big Jean, a stern, light-skinned woman with a heap of purple curls, isn’t developed, which is unfortunate as the character radiates interest and seems like a funny foil for the mischievous pug. Instead, the focus stays solely on Pig, whose reaction shots and bug-eyed horror at the thought of behaving will have readers giggling long after the book is finished. One sour spot is a visual joke that implies cultural insensitivity among Pig’s bad dog behaviors; it appears to be a reference to a previous title in the series, but without context it may confuse readers unfamiliar with the series. This issue aside, Pig is a bad pug whom children will want to read about again and again. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Another hilarious outing with this deliciously naughty dog. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-85919-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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