That perennial source of child-misery—an uptight mother who's not sympathetic to pets, especially the ratty sort—is deftly and unblinkingly examined by Philippa Pearce, though the situation is too familiar, and the outcome too predictable, to yield one of her more memorable fictions. The two gerbils, Bubble and Squeak (after the English beef-and-cabbage dish), are really Sid's—bestowed upon him by an Australia-bound acquaintance—but it's doting Peggy who can tell them apart, and little Amy who squeals. As for unassertive stepfather Bill, well, he once had white mice as a boy. . . . So there's a rush of resentment when Mrs. S., unbeknownst, gives the gerbils away (Sid runs off to the town's glummest woods) and despair when—after their return and the ensuing "gerbil festival"-she puts out their cage for the garbage man. But: "Missus," he says devastatingly, "you can't do this. There's something alive in here." To comfort the horrified Amy, Mrs. S. promises not to send the gerbils away again. And Sid, who's been equally intransigent, reluctantly agrees to let them stay with Peggy's accommodating friend for a cooling-off period. The final pair of crises thus finds the family more or less united: Bubble is mauled by a cat, Mrs. S. helps administer medication, and on the former owner's reappearance (Australia "didn't suit"), everyone talks him over to acquiring replacements. An active story, intensely felt, discerningly put, and irresistibly pictured.
Pub Date: April 16, 1979
ISBN: 0754062171
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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