Fledgling readers will agree with Princess’ bemused comment: “This Land of Fake-Believe is crazy-cakes!” (Fantasy. 6-8)
Jones takes “The Three Bears” for a dizzy spin in this laff-riot series opener.
Searching for a midnight snack, Princess (first name) Pink (last name) falls through a portal in her refrigerator. On the other side, she meets friendly Mother Moose (a bull moose), then follows green-haired Moldylocks to check out the chairs, bowls and beds of the Wookiee-like Three Beards. Later, having previously hacked an unwanted, pink, fairy-princess dress into a “Cowboy Caveman” outfit suitable for disguising herself as a fourth Beard, she intrepidly returns to save her new friend from being boiled in a vat of chili. Being cast against both genre type and publishers’ convention, Princess likes “dirty sneakers, giant bugs, mud puddles, monster trucks, and cheesy pizza” far more than fairies, princesses or anything pink, and she also (for a wonder) has dark skin in the cartoon illustrations. The text is distributed in easily digestible blocks and dialogue balloons among simply drawn scenes of popeyed figures rushing hither and yon. Parents worried about this nonstop romp’s literary value will surely be appeased by the page of review and discussion questions at the end.
Fledgling readers will agree with Princess’ bemused comment: “This Land of Fake-Believe is crazy-cakes!” (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: April 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-63840-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
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