A third grader’s happy year is interrupted when her beloved teacher gets cancer. “Say it like this. . . KEMP-CHIN-SKI!” the exuberant Mrs. Kempczinski counsels her students on the first day of school, and Ann Zesterman takes the advice to heart, saying her teacher’s name over and over, as a litany. Ann loves everything about Mrs. Kempczinski, and under her enthusiastic tutelage the class learns “a zillion facts about planets and penguins, poems and worms.” One day, Mrs. Kempczinski isn’t at school, and Ann and the other children learn that she has cancer. This tender tale ends on a touching but upbeat note with Mrs. Kempczinski coming back for a visit and the news that she returns the following year. But in real life this fact-based story didn’t end so happily, and the book is dedicated to Mrs. K.’s memory. It’s an affecting homage and Borden (The Little Ships, 1997) tells it simply and straight up. Gustavson’s keen pictures have the expressiveness of Norman Rockwell’s illustrations, with people’s faces in warm flesh tones set off by a background of cool greens, grays, and blues; these scenes of a schoolroom in which learning and good hearts coexist subtly augment the book’s message. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-82147-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
Overhearing that her job at the diner might be eliminated, Pinky Pig sets out to discover new ways to improve customer satisfaction. Can she save her job and earn enough money to buy a clarinet? Her new menu brings in the customers in droves. Children will squirm over the new concoctions, with something unique for each patron: Snailburger Supreme for Hedgehog, a burger with worms lightly fried for Mole, a termite-infested burger for Aardvark, not to mention Burger Deluxe, which has three kinds of bugs! Who could resist? Yee (Fireman Small to the Rescue, 1998, etc.) pens this fable lightly, but the moral is plain: by putting others first, Pinky attains what she wants. Whimsical, often hilarious watercolors show Pinky fast at work collecting assorted bugs of all sizes and shapes. Up-and-coming young biologists might be inspired to come up with some recipes of their own. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-87548-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The diet revolution, formally reserved for adolescents and adults, takes front and center stage in a picture book that purports to be a lesson in self-esteem. When faced with an acting audition in a local play, would-be actress Hillary the cat, formerly happy with herself, looks in the mirror and finds she is too round. Goaded on by her sister, slim Felice the diet queen, Hillary suddenly adopts the strict regimen of eating dry toast, watery soup, and a bowl of lettuce while working out at all hours on the stairstepper. The motives overtake story in a well-meaning but heavy-handed message when Hillary sees the much-admired actress/singer Nina Clophoofer, who is not only round, but happy and comfortable with herself. These cartoon creatures from Caple resemble a pleasant cross between Aliki’s characters and Nancy Carlson’s, but the story is too self-conscious and unintentionally inspiring: Children who have no weight problem and who have never considered the possibility of being either too large or too small may suddenly be checking their mirrors. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: March 2, 1999
ISBN: 1-57505-261-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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