A hungry wolf just can’t catch a break in these five loosely connected folktales. All are familiar, and amiably retold in large, sequential cartoon panels. Looking dapper in top hat and three-piece suit, the wolf first takes on three pigs (all of whom escape), moves on to the bored and foolish lad who cries “Wolf!” then is subjected to a fashion smackdown by Little Red Riding Hood. He unsuccessfully tries his luck again with the sheep under a woolen fleece snatched from Grandma’s house, and finally proves no match for seven hyperactive goslings whose mother has gone off on an errand. Readers drawn by the unusually large trim size and Alley’s animated, loosely posed figures will linger over the snappy dialogue (“ ‘I’ll teach you to be rude to my granny, you fake!’ screamed Rhonda, now clearly upset. ‘And did no one ever tell you not to wear white after Labor Day?’ ”) and almost feel sorry for the feckless predator—who is last seen eyeing a sign pointing toward Mr. McGregor’s garden and considering turning vegetarian. (Graphic folklore. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59643-275-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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BOOK REVIEW
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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