This visually chaotic version of an old folktale doesn’t work as a mild animal update. Bombarded by the incessant noise that surrounds his home in Bialystok, Dog moves to the countryside. His new little house is surrounded by “the blissful quiet of the country twilight”—until the middle of the night, when three rowdy neighborhood cats arrive in his yard to screech, yowl, break branches, and generally wreak havoc. Dog uses his wits to trick them into stopping. He convinces them that he loves the racket and pays them several gold zlotys to continue it over the next few nights, which leaves them unwilling to continue the service when he suddenly declares he’s out of money. They are too selfish to offer him “something for nothing,” and peace thus returns to his neighborhood. The watercolor paintings are busy, with no place to rest the eye and little indication about where to focus; even when Dog finds peace, the illustrations don’t. An author’s note says that this tale’s original version included people rather than animals and massacre rather than noise; the updated substitutions don’t ring true, and this Dog is too bright and imperturbable from the beginning to be an underdog. He’s a classic trickster character and would belong in a curriculum of trickster tales if there were not already so many better ones. (author’s note) (Picture book/folktale. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 24, 2003
ISBN: 0-618-15982-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Pedestrian.
Mr. Brown can’t help with farm chores because his shoes are missing—a common occurrence in his household and likely in many readers’ as well.
Children will be delighted that the titular Mr. Brown is in fact a child. After Mr. Brown looks in his closet and sorts through his other family members’ shoes with no luck, his father and his siblings help him search the farm. Eventually—after colorful pages that enable readers to spot footwear hiding—the family gives up on their hunt, and Mr. Brown asks to be carried around for the chores. He rides on his father’s shoulders as Papa gets his work done, as seen on a double-page spread of vignettes. The resolution is more of a lesson for the adult readers than for children, a saccharine moment where father and son express their joy that the missing shoes gave them the opportunity for togetherness—with advice for other parents to appreciate those fleeting moments themselves. Though the art is bright and cheerful, taking advantage of the setting, it occasionally is misaligned with the text (for example, the text states that Mr. Brown is wearing his favorite green shirt while the illustration is of a shirt with wide stripes of white and teal blue, which could confuse readers at the point where they’re trying to figure out which family member is Mr. Brown). The family is light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Pedestrian. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5460-0389-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: WorthyKids/Ideals
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
In the siblings' latest adventure, their grandmother is having a birthday (again! see Bunny Cakes, p. 67), so Ruby takes Max shopping. A music box with skating ballerinas is Ruby's idea of the perfect present; Max favors a set of plastic vampire teeth. Ruby's $15 goes fast, and somehow, most of it is spent on Max. The music box of Ruby's dreams costs $100, so she settles for musical earrings instead. There isn't even a dollar left for the bus, so Max digs out his lucky quarter and phones Grandma, who drives them home—happily wearing her new earrings and vampire teeth. As ever, Wells's sympathies are with the underdog: Max, in one-word sentences, out-maneuvers his officious sister once again. Most six- year-olds will be able to do the mental subtraction necessary to keep track of Ruby's money, and Wells helps by illustrating the wallet and its dwindling contents at the bottom of each page where a transaction occurs. Younger children may need to follow the author's suggestion and have an adult photocopy the ``bunny money'' on the endpapers, so they can count it out. Either way, the book is a great adjunct to primary-grade math lessons. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8037-2146-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1997
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