A mildly humorous story that doesn’t really stand out in the crowded arena of interspecies friendship.
A little dog named Pug is perfectly happy in his cozy, suburban world until pushy Pig moves in.
Pug lives in a big house with a fenced backyard and his own little doghouse to sleep in. Pig arrives (seemingly out of nowhere) wearing a friendly smile and a dress with a ruffled collar. She moves right in on Pug’s territory, slurping up his dog food, making friends with the neighbor cat, and taking over Pug’s doghouse. Pug is ready to leave home, but a new doggy door (installed by the unseen owner) gives him the ability to get in and out of the main house, while Pig can’t fit through the little door. Pug takes pity on poor Pig, gnawing on the door to enlarge it so it can be a “piggy door” for Pig’s convenience as well. Pug and Pig then immediately begin to share everything, becoming best friends and living happily together. Pug’s abrupt change of heart is a bit too sudden to be believable, with Pig not really earning her acceptance as a new housemate. The simple, understated text with just a few words on each page will be enjoyed by younger preschoolers and will also be accessible to new readers, and the jaunty, oversized illustrations have a cheerful, straightforward appeal that suits the text. The only human characters are three neighbor children who can be seen peeking over the fence at Pug and Pig; all are children of color. Pig and Pug, by Lynne Barry and illustrated by Gemma Correll (2015), covers similar territory but with more sophisticated humor.
A mildly humorous story that doesn’t really stand out in the crowded arena of interspecies friendship. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2066-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.”
The cover’s glowing golden stars are but a small hint of the parent-child love inside.
In this companion book to the creators’ I Love You, My Little Unicorn (2022), a world full of digitally created dinosaurs illustrated in eye-catching colors dominates the pages. From the start, it’s clear that dinosaur parents have the same hopes and dreams for their offspring that human parents do. Readers don’t have to be dinosaur fans to smile when the parent-and-child dinosaur pairs playfully interact and share loving glances. Take special note of the ankylosauruses, whose tails arc to form a heart beneath a sky filled with heart-shaped clouds. The text in verse shares words of unconditional parental love and support and wisdom (“please remember all these things / that I want you to know”), appropriate for humans and dinos alike. “Roar with all your might!” “Spread your wings and fly.” “Use your voice, and ask for help.” There’s even a caveat that some “days will be dark / and other shades of gray.” But “there’s always brightness up ahead.” While the loving sentiments in the storytelling are clear, words are sometimes inverted to make the rhyme work, and the verse doesn’t always follow a consistent meter, but prereading will let the story shine during quiet snuggle times.
Whether spoken by a dinosaur or a human, this parental message clearly radiates “I’ve loved you from the start.” (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728268361
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
