Nevertheless, the love and respect shown between Kioko and his grandfather is both universal and sweetly evident.
A modern Kenyan folktale about the colorful vans that carry people, animals and supplies underpins a story about Kioko, an astute but literal-minded boy, and his grandfather.
While the pair take a ride on the boy’s fifth birthday, Kioko asks why dogs run after matatus. Grandfather uses the opportunity to tell a story about why dogs chase after, sheep ignore and goats run away from the vans. Kioko interrupts his grandfather when confronted with silly ideas like animals talking and riding matatus, but as his grandfather describes a ride during which the dog never got his proper change, a sheep paid his fare exactly and a goat ran off without paying at all, the boy begins to understand both animal and human behavior. The boy asks his grandfather for a cash birthday present and then hands it to the conductor. He maturely tells the man that he is paying for the fare-beating goat, but in return, the conductor must give the dog back his money. Oil paintings provide realistic details of contemporary rural Kenya but include a few spreads in which the animals humorously take on anthropomorphic characteristics. The author’s note, drawing upon his Kenyan experiences, will amuse adults, but the full point of the story may elude youngsters, who are likely to be just as literal-minded as Kioko.
Nevertheless, the love and respect shown between Kioko and his grandfather is both universal and sweetly evident. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55469-301-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be...
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip.
The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface.
Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina...
Dedicated “to children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes,” this elemental debut depicts a bunny with big, looping ears demonstrating to a rather thick, unseen questioner (“Are you still standing around in that box?”) that what might look like an ordinary carton is actually a race car, a mountain, a burning building, a spaceship or anything else the imagination might dream up.
Portis pairs each question and increasingly emphatic response with a playscape of Crockett Johnson–style simplicity, digitally drawn with single red and black lines against generally pale color fields.
Appropriately bound in brown paper, this makes its profound point more directly than such like-themed tales as Marisabina Russo’s Big Brown Box (2000) or Dana Kessimakis Smith’s Brave Spaceboy (2005). (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-112322-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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