The traditional tale gets turned upside down in this hilarious new version. Little Wolf is sick of the meals his mother makes each night. No matter how good her lamburgers or sloppy does, he can’t help wondering why the wolf family doesn’t eat Boy anymore. Father explains that Boy is just getting too hard to find, but that if Little Wolf ever sees one, his parents would be happy to catch it and cook it for him. On the way home from school, the odor of Three-Pig Salad inspires Little Wolf to hatch a devious plan. He runs home, yelling “Boy” all the way. His parents fruitlessly search all evening, and just as he’d planned, the dinner is ruined and the family ends up eating snacks instead. The same happens the following night. But then Little Wolf slips up—Father overhears him bragging about what he had done to a friend on the telephone. Father and Mother make a pact to ignore him the next evening. Unbeknownst to the little family, though, a Boy Scout troop just happens to be hiking through the woods. Try as he may, Little Wolf just can’t get his parents to pay him any attention, even though he is finally being truthful. Little Wolf’s high-top sneakers and hat, along with a sour look on his face, give him a little devil look that fits the storyline perfectly. Meanwhile, his parents are impeccably dressed—Father in button shoes, vest, bowtie, and bowler, Mother in a long dress and frilly apron. Pen-and-ink drawings are wonderfully detailed, especially in the big “chase” scene—the facial expressions really make the story and the illustrations come together. Bigger laughs and more detail than the original, along with the time-honored message that truthfulness pays, make this a wonderful addition to any fairy-tale collection. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-23578-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2002
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
A book that will make young dog-owners smile in recognition and confirm dogless readers' worst suspicions about the mayhem caused by pets, even winsome ones. Sam, who bears passing resemblance to an affable golden retriever, is praised for fetching the family newspaper, and goes on to fetch every other newspaper on the block. In the next story, only the children love Sam's swimming; he is yelled at by lifeguards and fishermen alike when he splashes through every watering hole he can find. Finally, there is woe to the entire family when Sam is bored and lonely for one long night. Boland has an essential message, captured in both both story and illustrations of this Easy-to-Read: Kids and dogs belong together, especially when it's a fun-loving canine like Sam. An appealing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8037-1530-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
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