Friends Poodle and Hound learn to understand each other in three related short stories for new readers. At first, Poodle seems self-absorbed and overly concerned with her looks, but she ends up showing she’s got a lot more on her mind. The first story, which lacks the clear plot of the others, might cause a new reader to give up, revolving as it does around the alarmed looks of a pair of corgis when a newly coiffed Poodle talks to herself in a restaurant. In the second, Hound loves to stargaze and wishes Poodle would stop distracting him from his calculations, but when she spins a fantastic tale about the moon and Saturn, Hound finds a new appreciation for her intelligence. In the last story, Poodle proves herself again when Hound is planting a vegetable garden and is not interested in planting flowers. Poodle uses her wits to plan a surprise attack on bugs that might attack the veggies and ends up with what she wanted all along. Vane’s humorous watercolors, especially Poodle’s creative outfits, add some depth to these stories, but they lack spark. (Early reader. 4-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-58089-322-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Turkey’s in the “kind of trouble where it’s almost Thanksgiving...and you’re the main course.” Accordingly, Turkey tries on disguise after disguise, from horse to cow to pig to sheep, at each iteration being told that he looks nothing like the animal he’s trying to mimic (which is quite true, as Harper’s quirky watercolors make crystal clear). He desperately squeezes a red rubber glove onto his head to pass as a rooster, only to overhear the farmer suggest a poultry plan B when he’s unable to turn up the turkey. Turkey’s horrified expression as he stands among the peppers and tomatoes—in November? Chalk it up to artistic license—is priceless, but his surroundings give him an idea. Good fun, but it may lead to a vegetarian table or two. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5529-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2009
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