No substitutes for more traditional renditions—but not spoiled by the alterations, either.
Chicken Little may not be “the brightest chicken in the coop,” but he’s definitely not the only birdbrain in this version of the classic tale.
In East’s cartoon illustrations, Chicken Little leads the familiar crew of feathered followers (including Henny Penny, who often is the one to take the acorn on the noggin in other versions) in a comically frantic dash to find the king. But so badly does the decidedly shifty-looking Foxy Loxy bungle the climactic nab that not only do the birds escape, but Foxy is trucked off behind bars while the king calms the kerfuffle by pointing to the perfectly intact sky. The fox does better in the co-published Gingerbread Man, illustrated by Miriam Latimer, as he gobbles down his sugary treat—after which the lonely bakers take all the other hungry animals home for a “fantastic feast” of cakes and pastries. In Rumpelstiltskin, illustrated by Loretta Schauer, though the scraggly-bearded little man only has to spin straw into gold for one night, Alperin mostly sticks to the traditional plotline and ultimately sends him through the floor and into the royal dungeon so that baby Hugo and his parents live happily ever after. The illustrations in all three of these uniform editions share traditional settings, all-white humans, and bright, simple looks. The retellings are aimed at younger audiences, though by cutting the cumulative language in Chicken Little and Gingerbread Man to a minimum, the author drains some of the distinctive tone and character from those folk tales.
No substitutes for more traditional renditions—but not spoiled by the alterations, either. (Picture book/folk tale. 5-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58925-476-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work.
A young spinach hater becomes a spinach lover after she has to grow her own in a class garden.
Unable to trade away the seed packet she gets from her teacher for tomatoes, cukes or anything else more palatable, Sylvia reluctantly plants and nurtures a pot of the despised veggie then transplants it outside in early spring. By the end of school, only the plot’s lettuce, radishes and spinach are actually ready to eat (talk about a badly designed class project!)—and Sylvia, once she nerves herself to take a nibble, discovers that the stuff is “not bad.” She brings home an armful and enjoys it from then on in every dish: “And that was the summer Sylvia Spivens said yes to spinach.” Raff uses unlined brushwork to give her simple cartoon illustrations a pleasantly freehand, airy look, and though Pryor skips over the (literally, for spinach) gritty details in both the story and an afterword, she does cover gardening basics in a simple and encouraging way.
Very young gardeners will need more information, but for certain picky eaters, the suggested strategy just might work. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-9836615-1-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Readers to Eaters
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
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