Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3^-8. De Groat's Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink! (1996) is a funny classroom romp about Valentine's Day. The holiday this time is Halloween. Chipmunk Gilbert and his little sister, Lola, prepare their costumes. She's a ballerina, but she wants to be just like him, a space pilot. By mistake he takes the bag with her ballerina costume to school for the parade. He's appalled, but when he discovers that most of his classmates are space pilots, he makes the most of being different, and he twirls triumphantly in his pink tutu to the refreshment table. Of course, then Lulu wants her costume back. De Groat's funny watercolor pictures capture the various animal creatures' very human expressions and body language; and the parade of pig, owl, penguin, duck, rabbit, bear, etc., in outlandish garb captures the dressing-up farce of the holiday. --Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Gilbert and his sister accidentally switch costumes for their school's Halloween parade. "This cross-dressing caper gets primary-grade humor just right," said PW. Ages 5-up. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Having packed his Martian Space Pilot costume in his bag, Gilbert, the hedgehog introduced in Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink (Morrow, 1996), trots off to school for a holiday parade and party. Imagine his dismay when he discovers that he has taken his sister Lola's sack and her pink ballerina outfit by mistake. As five of his classmates also decided to be Martian Space Pilots, it's not an unmitigated disaster-so he squeezes into the tutu and toughs it out, encountering surprise but not a trace of derision from his peers. Well, it could happen. De Groat moves her human-proportioned animal cast between a comfortable suburban neighborhood dotted with colorful autumn leaves and a school restroom where the boys change clothes. However skeptical they may be of the mild reaction to Gilbert's costume, young viewers will enjoy the glimpses of loudly colored underwear (plus, for many girls, exotic bathroom plumbing). Despite severely undersized tights, Gilbert isn't made to look all that ludicrous or uncomfortable. Although Lola reclaims her costume for the evening's trick-or-treating, she and her brother at least tinker with gender stereotypes, and that may plant seeds in some readers' minds.-John Peters, New York Public Library (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
The day of the school Halloween parade, Gilbert realizes he's grabbed the bag containing his sister's pink ballerina costume by mistake. De Groat's portrayals of Gilbert (the porcupine from [cf2]Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink[cf1]) and his classmates are relaxed and uninhibited. Despite the somewhat contrived story, Gilbert's good-natured blunderings make for a kid-appealing Halloween treat. From HORN BOOK Spring 1999, (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.
