Poor pigs! Not only do the Three Little Pigs have to contend with their old nemesis the Big Bad Wolf in the third visit this year, they also find themselves at the mercy of The Illustrator. The first inkling that all is not well comes when a mysterious Voice from nowhere spills juice all over the first little pig’s straw house: a dismayed pig stares down at his house, which is partially obscured by an orange puddle and an overturned glass. The illustrator is an equal-opportunity meddler, giving the first and second little pigs time to escape to their brother’s house by redrawing the wolf’s nose. But the real problems start when the illustrator informs the pigs that they have all gone pale because he has run out of red paint—a squeezed-out tube of red paint appears on the corner of the page as corroborating evidence. The interplay between the infuriated and befuddled characters and the illustrator continues, with the pigs and the other elements of their story drawn as cartoons and the illustrator’s paints and other artifacts appearing realistically on top of the plane of the page. This sort of self-conscious recognition of the artifice behind a picture book is nothing new; recent examples include Chris Van Allsburg’s A Bad Day at Riverbend (1996) and Jackie French Koller’s One Monkey Too Many (1999)—not to mention I Love Going Through this Book, by Robert Burleigh (see above). By setting this concept within such a familiar tale heightens the artifice, Whatley (Captain Pajamas, not reviewed) allows children to explore it on one level while enjoying a fractured fairy tale on another. It’s a sophisticated concept, though—use it with children who are beginning to understand what an illustrator is, and pair it with Janet Stevens’s From Pictures to Words (1995) for a thorough treatment. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: June 30, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-028270-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
Gooney Bird Greene (with a silent E) is not your average second grader. She arrives in Mrs. Pidgeon’s class announcing: “I’m your new student and I just moved here from China. I want a desk right smack in the middle of the room, because I like to be right smack in the middle of everything.” Everything about her is unusual and mysterious—her clothes, hairstyles, even her lunches. Since the second graders have never met anyone like Gooney Bird, they want to hear more about her. Mrs. Pidgeon has been talking to the class about what makes a good story, so it stands to reason that Gooney will get her chance. She tells a series of stories that explain her name, how she came from China on a flying carpet, how she got diamond earrings at the prince’s palace, and why she was late for school (because she was directing a symphony orchestra). And her stories are “absolutely true.” Actually, they are explainable and mesh precisely with the teacher’s lesson, more important, they are a clever device that exemplify the elements of good storytelling and writing and also demonstrate how everyone can turn everyday events into stories. Savvy teachers should take note and add this to their shelf of “how a story is made” titles. Gooney Bird’s stories are printed in larger type than the narrative and the black-and-white drawings add the right touch of sauciness (only the cover is in color). A hybrid of Harriet, Blossom, and Anastasia, irrepressible Gooney Bird is that rare bird in children’s fiction: one that instantly becomes an amusing and popular favorite. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-618-23848-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Walter Lorraine/Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
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