Here’s hoping Harper will oblige with more stories starring these birds.
Three silly birds with the same wacky sense of the absurd as Elephant and Piggie are likely to be a hit with Mo Willems fans.
Just about 50 words are used repeatedly to make a clever story about nothing. A button (the kind that’s pressed, not the kind that holds up pants) has no apparent purpose, but the birds are excited: “Wowee!” Even though the yellow bird is convinced it does nothing, it’s still excited. The round red bird proudly points out that the button is red. Then the blue bird presses the button and is surprised at how easy it is to do that, refuting the yellow bird’s assertion that the button does nothing: “A surprise is NOT nothing.” The red bird takes a turn pressing the button, but he is not surprised; he is sad. But sadness is not nothing either. Still the yellow bird insists that the button does nothing and cannot make anyone feel anything. Pressing on through a full range of emotions, the birds argue passionately. The logic of the yellow bird’s argument is spot-on for the second- and third-graders who will flock to this easy reader. That Elephant and Piggie introduce the story and return for an epilogue almost guarantees its popularity.
Here’s hoping Harper will oblige with more stories starring these birds. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-2646-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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