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LITTLE PIG SAVES THE SHIP

Name: LITTLE PIG SAVES THE SHIP
Author: David Hyde Costello
ISBN: 978-1-58089-715-0

by David Hyde Costello ; illustrated by David Hyde Costello ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2017

Here’s hoping Little Pig will take his time growing up and gift readers with a few more tales of being smallest.

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Little Pig’s still too small to do everything his brothers and sisters do…but it turns out that’s not a problem.

Little Pig’s four older siblings are going to sailing camp, but Little Pig’s not old enough. Eldest sibling Tiny gives him a rope to practice knots, but one whole day of tying knots is enough. Thankfully, Poppy and Grandpa come over, and Poppy brings a model ship he’s carving. Little Pig helps Poppy finish the ship. They sail it on Monday and Tuesday and in the rain on Wednesday. They build a dock Thursday and sail it all the way across the river Friday. On Saturday it gets away from them and goes over a waterfall in a dramatic sequence that’s perfectly gauged for the audience. Poppy can’t catch it. Little Pig runs to the bridge, remembers the rope Tiny gave him, and makes use of those knots he practiced. He saves the day just in time to share sailing stories with all his siblings, home from camp. Costello’s second title starring Little Pig’s as charming as his earlier Little Pig Joins the Band (2011). The inviting watercolor-and-ink illustrations are a well-paced mix of full-bleed, spot, and cartoon panels dotted with speech bubbles that illuminate the close, intergenerational relationship between Little Pig and Poppy. Young listeners will identify with being too little but still quite capable.

Here’s hoping Little Pig will take his time growing up and gift readers with a few more tales of being smallest. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: May 2, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-58089-715-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

- BOOK REVIEW
I CAN HELP IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
by David Hyde Costello ; illustrated by David Hyde Costello

- BOOK REVIEW
A CROW OF HIS OWN
by Megan Dowd Lambert ; illustrated by David Hyde Costello

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE PIG JOINS THE BAND
by David Hyde Costello & illustrated by David Hyde Costello

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)