Review by Booklist Review
Adapted from a 1972 cartoon he created for Sesame Street, Sendak tells a surreal story of a little piggy's very first birthday party at the age of nine. The piggy's parents have died, so it's his aunt who gives him a cake and a cowboy costume before she heads off to work. As soon as she departs, the pig invites a rowdy crew of costumed swine to celebrate with him, and Sendak tones down the raucous party a bit: th. win. of the original cartoon has been replaced b. brine. Although his aunt is initially furious upon her return, all is quickly forgiven. This outing is unmistakably Sendak, with rhyming text that recalls the early charm of the Nutshell Library's volumes and vivid watercolors that reflect the more visionary work of We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993). Sendak peppers the illustrations with details that invite close scrutiny and repeated visits. With a slightly sinister tone, a surprisingly bright palette, and a pointed narrative, this picture book leaves an indelible impression.--Barthelmess, Tho. Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sendak plays to his multigenerational audience in his first solo escapade since 1981's Outside Over There (unless one counts Jack and Guy's nursery rhyme interpretation from 1993). Based on an early Sesame Street animated short created by Sendak and Jim Henson, this new Bumble-Ardy is a piglet. For eight years, the little hog's birthdays have been overlooked: "But when Bumble was eight/ (Oh, pig-knuckled fate!)/ His immediate family gorged and gained weight./ And got ate." On this eight/ate pun, with mischievous rhymes on nine to follow, Bumble is adopted by his Aunt Adeline. She leaves "the house at one past nine" on his birthday, never suspecting that Bumble has invited a vaudevillian riot of hogs to celebrate: "At nine past nine the piggy swine/ Broke down the door and guzzled brine/ And hogged sweet cakes and oinked loud grunts/ And pulled all kinds of dirty stunts." The elaborately costumed party animals replace the original animation's nine more ordinary pigs, and include a society matron, a grim reaper, greedy infants, and motley fools. Together they resemble a Saul Steinberg subterranean fantasia and allude to Sendak's decades of pop culture memories. In a Where the Wild Things Are spirit, the ecstatic crew dives into a wordless three-spread rumpus. A dizzy sequence shows Adeline busting up the party and confronting Bumble. "I won't ever turn ten!" he weeps, and she quickly forgives him. There's a looseness to Sendak's pencil lines throughout, particularly in transitional spreads that look as though torn from a sketchbook. Yet-in the outwardly breezy and subtly sinister mode of Higglety Pigglety Pop!-the hallucinatory imagery and impish rhymes are vintage Sendak. All ages. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-In this cautionary tale about partying with a bunch of swine, Sendak's rollicking rhyme records Bumble the pig's first (and last) birthday bash at the ripe old age of nine. The sublime watercolors are expressive and expansive and the full-bleed spreads of the unrestrained revelry are priceless. (Aug.) (c) Copyright 2011. 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
Bumble-Ardy made its first appearance back in 1971 as an animated short on Sesame Street featuring a boy who invited pigs to his ninth birthday party (see "Cadenza," page 128). Forty years later, the story makes its picture book debut, and Sendak has made some significant changes: all the characters are now pigs, and a prologue describes how Bumble-Ardy's family neglected him for his first eight years and then "gorged, and got ate." Adopted by his sweet aunt, Adeline, Bumble-Ardy has been instructed not to allow anyone in while she's at work, even though it's his birthday, but he's already sent out party invitations to nine grubby swine. Although he is defying authority, his own invitations impose more rules than Aunt Adeline ever would, including the directive that the guests should be neither late nor early, bring gifts, and come in costume. At Bumble-Ardy's party, it seems, everyone must come dressed in their own version of a wolf suit; like Max, they are ready to make mischief of one kind or another, with all the freedom anonymity promises. Some costumes are subtle references to Sendak's earlier work -- wild things, night-kitchen chefs, Really Rosie, and even, as if Sendak is taunting his critics, the all-around alligator "imitating Indians." Some costumes pay homage to the work of others, including Dr. Seuss, William Steig, and Garth Williams -- all of whom disturbed critics at one time or another. In fact, the two-year-old Bumble-Ardy is shown before the title page reading a newspaper with the banner headline "We Read Banned Books." Interestingly, two characters recur throughout: Death, represented by a macabre skeleton; and a prim and proper lady who wears a sheriff's badge. Neither one steps in to stop the fun, although it feels as though one of them easily could at any minute. Amusing as it might be for children's literature buffs to identify all the allusions, the book as a whole speaks to the sensibilities of young children in the same way Sendak's earlier classics Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, and Outside Over There did. But the art itself is more reminiscent of later works, such as Brundibar and The Nutcracker, that draw as much from his experience in designing stage sets and costumes as from his picture book illustrations. Sendak deals with the psychological reality of a good time gone bad, of anarchy unleashed, all the while acknowledging that breaking the rules can be fun, and perhaps even necessary, whether one is a child or an artist. kathleen t. horning (c) Copyright 2011. 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
A master reincarnates his oldSesame Streetcartoon with a dark pathos and fascinating manic energy.As one of the original architects of gleeful mischief and serious woe in modern picture books, Sendak employs both here. "Did you know / That Bumble-Ardy missed / Eight birthdays in a row?" opens the narration, the weeping porcine protagonist placing trotter to forehead. His original family "frowned on fun" and then (being pigs) "got ate," landing Bumble with adoptive "Adeline, that aunt divine." Luckily, "Bumble-Ardy had a party when he was nine." A pleasant, mild illustration shows Adeline in their slatted, open-air house presenting cake and gift, Bumble murmuring "Yippee!" But emotional complexity lurks: Bumble's eyes are red-rimmed, and nearby animals look gloomy and skeptical. Adeline gone to work, Bumble (permission-less) invites "grubby swine // To come for birthday cake and brine." Costumes evoke Bread Puppet and Cinco de Mayo at this rambunctious masquerade ball; partiers revel with sinister gusto. During the multi-spread rumpus, rhyme sneaks onto signs: "Cheers! / Cheers! / Cheers! / May Bumble live 900 years!" When furious Adeline ejects the guests, her face morphs into a horror mask, but then she "Took in her Bumble valentine / And kissed him nine times over nine. // Now, ain't that fine?" Children and parents both will require many trips through to even begin to accommodate the emotional shifts here.Edgier thanSesame's original, this contains all the layered meaning that makes Sendak's books readable over and over.(Picture book. 4 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
