Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-8. The harmonica Zeke Pippin finds in the street profoundly changes his life. Zeke practices with it every chance he gets and eventually wows his family with a brilliant rendition of La Traviata. Just as things really start hopping, however, the entire Pippin brood falls asleep. When this same scene is replayed night after night, Zeke becomes so fed up he runs away. After learning the truth about his "supernatural mouth organ" while floating downriver on a raft, he starts the long, perilous journey back home. Colorful and cartoonlike, Steig's watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations add to the humorous story. Although the plots and characters of Steig's books are beginning to seem a lot alike (Pearl the pig from The Amazing Bone could be Zeke's sibling, and Zeke's adventure is reminiscent in some ways of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble), Zeke's story still has some charm of its own. What's more, if it inspires youngsters to search out more books by the author, so much the better. (Reviewed November 1, 1994)0062050761Lauren Peterson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This deeply funny picture book immediately joins the ranks of Steig classics. When a harmonica falls from a garbage truck onto Zeke Pippin's trotters, the young pig's life changes completely. At every opportunity he practices his scales (``even out in the rain'') until he is ready to serenade his family. But he has scarcely begun his premiere performance (``regaling them with the prelude to La Traviata'') before his audience is snoozing and snoring. Outraged, Zeke leaves home. On a precarious journey downstream he soon discovers that the mouth organ puts absolutely everyone to sleep. As he hastens home he is beset by bands of baddies with only his trusty harmonica to help him out. Sensitive Zeke with his musical hopes and wounded pride is a pig with plenty of child appeal-especially amusing are illustrations of him stalking archly away from his sleeping family (``How can I go on living under the same roof with such nincompoops?''). Steig adds some nifty wordplay to his already exuberant language (e.g., ``with the half-moon half helping, Zeke threaded his way through a confusion of trees and tangled vines''). The gleeful narrative simply sparkles. Ages 3-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-5-When Zeke Pippin finds a harmonica and plays it for his family, they instantly fall asleep. Furious, the young pig storms off and travels downstream on a raft, where he meets an egret and a boatload of tourists, all of whom doze off when he plays. He finally realizes that the instrument is enchanted and regrets his hasty departure from home. Heading back, he meets three villainous dogs that rob him and a wicked coyote that threatens to eat him. Both times, his magical music entrances the savage beasts and he returns safely to his loving family. Reminiscent of both Spinky Sulks (1988) and The Amazing Bone (1983, both Farrar), this is another whimsical journey into family relationships that focuses on magical objects and the ingenuity of youth. Zeke is an endearing character and his music leads readers into a delightfully zany plot. Steig's typical pastel watercolors, depicting pigs and other creatures with human characteristics and charming facial expressions, fill each page. No one paints quite like Steig-even inanimate objects exude personality and life. A humorous and heartwarming book.-Beth Tegart, Oneida City Schools, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
When Zeke Pippin, an attractive young pig, finds a harmonica, his family are astonished at his musical skill, but they soon fall asleep. Outraged by such cavalier treatment, Zeke leaves home, but he becomes suspicious when others fall asleep to his music. He starts back but must deal first with two villains and a villainess. Steig's trademark illustrations are as bold and funny as ever. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Zeke Pippin, a pig, happens across a harmonica. After disinfecting the mouth organ with his father's schnapps, he takes to the instrument like a duck to water. But when his nincompoop family dozes off when he serenades them, he flees home on his customized raft. He treats a heron to a tune, and the bird also conks out. Then Zeke turns the lights out on each and every passenger on an excursion boat floating nearby. This is, clearly, a harmonica with a difference. When Zeke's odyssey turns difficult, the instrument comes to his salvation time and again, putting to sleep some would-be robbers and a hungry coyote. Home at last, he gains acclaim as a lullabyist before landing a gig at the local Grange Hall, this time playing a regulation harmonica, not the magical harp. Steig (Dr. De Soto Goes to Africa, 1992, etc.) himself is a bit of magic, his stories nutty, with clever wordplay and drawings that, for all their goofiness, are wonderfully alive. Steig's golden touch shines on. (Fiction/Picture book. 3+)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
