Louisa the pig, unhappy with the conditions on the farm, sends a series of anonymous letters to Farmer Joe requesting improvements. Her increasingly imperious missives demand that he tidy things up and make them more attractive as well. Despite the farmer’s earnest efforts, Louisa remains “disgruntled” and sets off for a better life in the big city. Like the country mouse, Louisa finds that she misses life on the farm and she sends another letter, signed this time, with a more polite message announcing her imminent return to farm life. Kiddie’s cartoon-style illustrations in a moody palette of subdued hues are enhanced by a flattened perspective that gives the farmer the appearance of a friendly rag doll. Louisa’s letters are reproduced in a collage style, with printed scrawl on notepaper, inkblots and dots and added elements such as a spoon, a pencil and a taped-on daisy. While the story hasn’t the verve of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, its embedded letters could easily scaffold on lessons in early-elementary classrooms. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-136634-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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