May be of some interest for its cast, if not its cleverness or language.
A version of the popular cumulative rhyme with swamp, ocean, and bayou creatures on the menu.
As Lee opens with a weak partial rhyme—“I don’t know why he swallowed the moth. / It made him cough”—and closes clumsily with “one final cough” that “carried everything off” (i.e., in a big upchuck), this doesn’t measure up to the plethora of tighter, sillier, more colorful variations on the old ditty. Still, as the increasingly walleyed gator’s subsequent victims include a crab, an eel, a ray, a pelican, a panther, a manatee (“He lost his sanity to swallow a manatee!”), and a shark before he guzzles an entire lagoon, there’s at least a regional bent to the cast. Also, the jaunty cadences lend themselves equally well to being read or sung, and Opie’s occasional cutaway views of a swelling reptilian belly and its scowling inhabitants add comical suspense to his green-dominated wetland scenes. As the gator survives the experience, this can be added to the versions by Lucille Colandro (14 so far and counting) and others that gloss over or revise the archetype’s mortal consequences. All the critters the gator gobbles survive too, swimming or flying away in bedraggled dismay.
May be of some interest for its cast, if not its cleverness or language. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4556-2441-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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
Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring’s string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: “Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!” “Pirates don’t get seasick either. But you do.” “Yeesh. I’m an astronaut, okay?” “Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It’s hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!” And so on, until Mom’s enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal’s minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn’t quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig’s lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy’s watery closing “EUREKA!!!” is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25425-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
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