Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 1. Children who may have heard their parents reference the boy who cried wolf (without a clue about what they were talking about) get a very funny version of the story here. The plot is the familiar one, but humorous embellishments abound. I am the most bored boy in the world, the shepherd says (as he's picking his nose), so, for a little excitement, he runs into the town yelling, Wolf! Wolf! Wolf. The people answer his frenzied cries twice but ignore him the third time, when three hungry wolves actually appear. Along with the text's funny moments, Kulikov milks the situation in the art. He uses a variety of perspectives, a couple of which almost put the boy in the reader's lap, and his watercolor-and-gouache artwork teases many laughs from the sheep, whose expressions range from adoring to alarmed. This also has great energy, especially when the townspeople run hither and yon. The ending is a little flat, but at least\b the sheep end up in a tree rather than a wolf's stomach. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Hennessy (Claire and the Unicorn Happy Ever After, reviewed below) and Kulikov (Morris the Artist) retell a well-known story with humorous verve. Kulikov slyly sets the scene in a Renaissance Italian landscape. He pictures the shoeless shepherd chewing on a stem; lazy butterflies, birds and dragonflies flit about. Hennessy's conversational style meanwhile brings the 16th-century peasant into present-day focus: " `I am so bored,' he thought. `All day long all I do is watch sheep.....' Munch, munch, munch. Baaaaaaaaaaaaa, answered the sheep." When the dullness overwhelms him, he runs to the village, yelling, "There is a wolf after my sheep!" The townspeople arrive en masse and span several centuries, from a knight to a musketeer to 19th-century city-folk in top hats. "That was a fun afternoon," thinks the shepherd, playing leapfrog with a friend who stays behind. Needless to say, he succeeds a second time, but his third effort (in earnest) fails to draw a crowd. Kulikov depicts the wolves as a fearsome hydra, but the boy's punishment is not too severe; the book ends wordlessly, with a spread revealing that the resourceful sheep have clambered up a tree. Hennessy's economic prose repeats key phrases for emphasis, while Kulikov composes comic close-ups with steep perspectives as the intensity heightens. Their shepherd misbehaves, but he's not so bad-he just wants a little excitement. Ages 3-7. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-This revised and updated title is divided into four components--a concise definition of fabric, an explanation of how fabric is made, information about blended fabric construction, and textile finishing techniques. Fabric felting, weaving, and knitting are presented in a fast-paced yet thorough manner, using simple analogies to describe complex processes, such as comparing the carding of wool and other fibers to running a comb through hair, or a using a tennis racket to show crosswise (weft) and lengthwise threads (warp). The voice-over narration paired with live-action footage works well to explain the weaving process. Students learn about knitted and blended fabrics, including a demonstration of hand loom weaving as well as the more modern weaving and knitting machinery found in factories today. A useful resource for home economics classes.-Celeste Steward, Alameda County Library, Fremont, CA (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
(Preschool, Primary) Hennessy spins out Aesop's brief fable with dialogue (""'I am SO bored,' he thought. 'All day long all I do is watch sheep...Well, what would be exciting? I know!'"") and other details (the shepherd falsely claims first one wolf, then two; finally, three actual wolves appear). More effective than such minor embroideries are Kulikov's energetic watercolor and gouache visualizations, in which the villagers' garb spans centuries (one scene sports armor, a top hat, and baseball caps) and the bemused sheep (bug-eyed and neurotic looking but -- as it develops -- not without resource) join dutifully in their foolish keeper's games. The shepherd -- his rotund form exaggerated by toddlerlike proportions -- is seen from such close and dynamic perspectives that he fairly bursts from the page. Kulikov also provides the gentle conclusion: while the boy vainly seeks his sheep, they have bolted away together and are safely (and amusingly) perched in a tree. But despite the happy ending, those wolves are plenty frightening -- Aesop's fable still has teeth. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Never has this favorite tale been told with such animation and charming humor. The shepherd boy is bored, really bored. He tries to teach the sheep tricks, but they aren't interested. He needs excitement so he cries WOLF and everyone comes running; then he cries TWO WOLVES, and the townsfolk run lickety-split to help again. And you know the rest of the story--on his third alarm, no response. Only this time there are THREE HUNGRY WOLVES, and the boy has to hunt all day for his missing sheep by himself. The last spread, wordless, shows the boy searching the pasture while the sheep are stacked up in a tree. Kulikov's inventive watercolor-and-gouache illustrations give "sheepish grins" new dimension, as the expressions on the animals' faces are unabashedly funny. It's the in-your-face angles and perspectives that spin the drama, from the foot-view of the boy picking his nose to sheep-leaping to a pesky fly; even the typeface name, "Uncle Stinky," fits the romp. Kids will cry for repeated readings of this amusing account. Ovine divine--and darn clever. (Picture book/folktale. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
