Lilly (Julius, The Baby of the World, 1991, etc.) is back, and in school. She loves everything about it, especially her wonderful teacher, Mr. Slinger. One morning Lilly is happier than ever because her grandmother has given her movie star sunglasses, three shiny quarters, and a purple plastic purse that plays a tune when it's opened. She's dying to show her new things to her friends. But when she talks out of turn and distracts the class, Mr. Slinger confiscates her treasures for the day. Suddenly he becomes ``BIG FAT MEAN MR. STEALING TEACHER!'' in Lilly's eyes, and she leaves him a note telling him so. Then she finds Mr. Slinger's own note to her, along with some snacks: ``Today was a difficult day./Tomorrow will be better.'' Helped by her parents, a remorseful Lilly manages a heartwarming reconciliation with her teacher. Henkes once again demonstrates his direct line to the roller- coaster emotions of small children. With a slightly more complicated plot than those of Lilly's previous adventures, this one employs understated humor throughout. The illustrations do an exceptional job of amplifying the text: Lilly dances with excitement, flashes with anger, wanes in remorse, and leaps right off the page with joy. (Picture book. 5+)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-688-12897-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1996
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
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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