Feisty, funny Nanny Piggins and her adoring charges will charm readers and listeners stateside, who'll be overjoyed there...
If Amelia Bedelia and Mary Poppins raised a piglet, Nanny Piggins...could surely beat that pig in a cake-eating contest.
Australia's favorite porcine childcare worker returns in a new collection of adventures sure to entertain and possibly inspire envy in readers who'll wish she were their nanny. In the first tale, Nanny Piggins, former circus performer and abject worshipper of cake, and her charges, the three Green children (not to mention Nanny's brother, the dancing bear Boris), thwart the wicked plan of Mr. Green, penny-pinching tax attorney and father of the kids, to find a wife who'll do Nanny's job for free. Nanny does jury duty, and the jurors fall so deeply in love with her baking they conspire to lengthen the trial by never agreeing. She turns a game of pirates into a tunnel to China (to sample authentic Chinese food) only to end up breaking into a men's prison...even that doesn't end where one would expect. She fends off egotistical armadillos, gypsy queens and Buzzy Bee cookie salesgirls while making sure the children don't spend too much time in school. Santat's energetic, expressive and silly line drawings are the delectable icing on this confection.
Feisty, funny Nanny Piggins and her adoring charges will charm readers and listeners stateside, who'll be overjoyed there are five additional volumes already out Down Under. (Humor. 7-10)Pub Date: July 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-19923-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
Lively fun with animal friends.
Has Plum’s pep deserted him?
Several animals from the Athensville Zoo are on their way to visit an elementary school. Overconfident Itch the ningbing (an Australian marsupial), unaware that zookeeper Lizzie will be doing all the talking, looks forward to “lecturing eager young minds.” Plum, the usually chipper peacock, on the other hand, is anxious—maybe the schoolchildren won’t like him or he’ll get lost. So when they arrive at the school to find the students have been sent home due to a blizzard, Plum is relieved. The animals are left in a school gym for the night until three self-important class mice free them. Itch heads for the library to meet the learned turtle, but Plum reluctantly explores with his friends. When his anxiety peaks, they reassure him, and when the mice reject Meg, another peacock, as “borrrring” and uncool, they buoy her as well before everyone comes together to save Itch, who finds himself outside and stranded in a snowdrift. Unlike Leave It to Plum (2022), this is not a mystery, and the relationship focus shifts from Lizzie to the rodents, but the pace is brisk, and sequel seekers will be pleased to revisit familiar characters (if dismayed that Itch’s longing for knowledge leads to his downfall). In Phelan’s engaging grayscale pen-and-wash illustrations, Lizzie has short curly hair; text and art cue her as Latine.
Lively fun with animal friends. (how to draw Plum) (Chapter book. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-307920-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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