“Like most children you have probably thought to yourself at one time or another, I bet a pig parade would be a lot of fun.” After all, “pig parade” is even fun to say…but did you know that pigs hate to march? They would rather snuffle, which doesn’t lend itself to parading. Pigs won’t wear uniforms. Hard to say why; maybe they think uniforms unflattering, which is just foolish. Pigs care nothing for floats (except those involving root beer), and their trotters can’t hold the lines for giant balloons. To top it off, pigs prefer sad, slow country ballads to peppy marching-band music. Maybe a panda parade, then...? Black and Hawkes reteam to good effect for a second sly and silly animal-centered tale (Chicken Cheeks, 2009). Black’s deadpan wit might not be to all tastes, but sophisticated young audiences will hoot at the interplay of illustration and text. Hawkes’s acrylic paintings, most full-bleed, of realistic porkers munching on majorette uniforms and noodling with instruments are nothing short of spectacular. A preposterous, porcine pleasure. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-7922-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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