Lovers of fractured fairy tales will be amused by this further peek into the personal letters of familiar characters by the team that started it all with Dear Peter Rabbit (1994). Ms. Red Hen has just moved to Happy Valley with her brood of chicks, but her neighbors are proving to be less than neighborly. While she slaves away in her cornfield, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks band together with the Three Pigs and Peter Rabbit to lend her a hand. Meanwhile, fed up with the trouble of trying to eat rabbits and pigs, the forest carnivores have devious plans of their own. With the help of the amateur spy Lazy Feline, Wolfy Lupus, and Fer O’Cious let the family get plump and fat on the corn. But Wolfy just can’t wait to feast and decides to prey on Hetty Hen—with disastrous results. When all is said and done, chicken is added to the list of foresworn foods for the unfortunate carnivores. The aptly named characters and addresses will delight language lovers—Turkey Lurkey, M.D., lives on Ailments Road and the “temporary” addresses of Pig One and Pig Two are listed in the Hidden Forest Directory. Readers will enjoy recalling the details of each individual character’s fairy tale from the cleverly embedded “facts” Ada sprinkles throughout the letters. While this is a great introduction to letter-writing, young readers may have trouble with this format, and will need to be kept aware of the writer and recipient of each letter. Known for both the two previous titles in this series and the Albert series of books, Tryon’s detailed illustrations fit the letters perfectly, and close observers will discover something new with each reading. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82581-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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