Review by New York Times Review
Wilbur and Babe aside, pigs aren't known for their cuddly disposition. But Gal ("Into the Outdoors," "Night Lights") depicts them so convincingly as family-oriented creatures that, after following them through a day full of activity (building a house, planting a garden, making friends, other porcine pursuits), it's no surprise to find them tucking in family-bed style for the night. Gal's richly textured oil crayon and collage illustrations are dense with activity. But when the pigs curl up with copies of "Charlotte's Web" and "The Three Little Pigs," readers will be ready to snuggle in beside them. I KNOW A WEE PIGGY By Kim Norman. Illustrated by Henry Cole. 32 pp. Dial. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 5) "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is like a pest that refuses to go away. Yet no matter the iteration - whether it's a monster swallowing a spider or a spinster swallowing books - children seem to gobble it up. Happily, Norman's variation offers enough of a tweak on the formula for parents to be entertained too. Here the pig wallows rather than swallows as he tramps through the colors of a county fair. He's covered in pink cotton candy, coated in green grass stains, caught up in a grandmother's purple scarf. He retains his adorable pink snout underneath all the mess. OINK-A-DOODLE-MOO Written and illustrated by Jef Czekaj. 32 pp. Balzer & Bray/HarperCollins Publishers. $16.99. Picture book; ages 3 to 6) The old-school game of telephone is always good for a grade-school laugh, and setting the classic pastime in a barnyard practically guarantees one. Naturally, a piglet starts everything. "Psst," he calls to a nearby rooster, passing along his secret: "Oink." The birdbrained rooster quite naturally screws it up, telling a cow, "Oink-a-doodle-doo," and urging her to pass it along. Even a 3-year-old can see where this is heading. Czekaj has a cartoony Nickelodeon style that spurs the cow's galumps into animated action in a sequence of events mat's made for reading and laughing aloud. PASS IT ON! By Marilyn Sadler. Illustrated by Michael Slack. 40 pp. Blue Apple. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Who knew pigs were such telephone fanatics? Or bees, cows and dogs for that matter - all of them equally apt to get everything wrong. In this rendition of barnyard telephone, events are spurred into motion when a cow gets stuck on a fence (by her rump; it's that kind of book). When Bee tells Frog to pass the news along, the frog senselessly alters the message: "Cow put a duck in the tent Pass it on!" he tells a bewildered pig. Each message is escalated into greater heights - or depths - of absurdity, gleefully depicted in Slack's retro Tibor Gergely-style illustrations. In me end, Pig helps set things right. OLYMPIG! Written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. 32 pp. Dial $16.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 9) Boomer is excited to compete in the Animal Olympics. Never mind that he's me first pig ever to do so. Never mind that he doesn't exactly look athletic. Never mind that his grandfather is annoyed at having to miss "Days of Our Swine" to witness the event For Boomer, it's all about "hard work and practice." If only. Boomer proceeds to lose every contest and all that optimism ends in a piggish temper tantrum Luckily, there's one more event: gymnastics. Not all stories have happy endings, and not everyone can win at everything. Boomer, at least isn't a sore loser. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 15, 2012]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* With an old-lady-who-swallowed-a-fly structure, this follows a wily wee swine through a county fair as he sloshes in substances of different colors, creating mess after mess and smile after smile. At first he is as happy as a pig in mud, but then decides brown is not for me and I think I'll add a rinse of . . . RED! He wallows in canned tomatoes from the horticulture exhibit to achieve the desired effect. A veritable rainbow of mishaps follow from pink cotton candy to yellow egg yolks to black paint and each is perfectly paced across long pages, with exciting page turns. This is a blue ribbon-worthy read-aloud opportunity for celebrating rhyme, repetition, rural traditions, laughter and, of course, color. The star's earnestness is irresistible, and both text and pictures are rich and energetic. Throughout, the words red, green, blue, and so on are printed in their respective colors, thereby reinforcing the lesson for little ones. Cole's acrylic and colored-pencil art alternates between full bleeds and spot art placed on clean white pages clean, that is, until little piggies (aka legions of adoring book lovers) get their hooves on it. Pair with I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! (2005) for an additional splash of color at storytime.--Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This little piggy has escaped from his owner and is running riot through the county fair, getting covered in gunk, globs, and other stuff representing nine colors: brown from the muddy pig pen, red from the tomato canning display, yellow from the broken yolks in the chicken coop-which provides Cole (Big Chickens Fly the Coop) the opportunity to prove, once again, that he's virtually unrivaled when it comes to drawing hysterical hens-and so forth. By the time the wee piggy proudly wins a blue ribbon, he makes the Garbage Pail Kids look pristine-and kids will be reveling in his genially mischievous grossness. Norman (Ten on the Sled) contributes a catchy cumulative verse that riffs on "I Know an Old Lady" ("I know a wee piggy who wallowed in green./ Oh, what a scene! He'll NEVER get clean!/ He wallowed in green to go with the black./ He wallowed in black to go with the yellow"). But it's Cole's porcine hero who steals the show: even the fussiest grownups will fall for this eager-eyed, grinning, leaping, prancing, filthy pig. Ewww. And awww. Ages 3-5. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Drawing inspiration from "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," this rollicking story of a small pig's escapades at a fair will delight readers. Escaping from his boy, the porker gets into plenty of messy trouble before winning a blue ribbon. The whimsical, rhyming text scans well for reading aloud and provides opportunities for talking about colors and predicting what adventure will next befall the runaway. "I know a wee piggy who wallowed in red./Hoof to head, he wallowed in red./He wallowed in red to go with the brown./Upside down, he wallowed in brown." Cole's brilliant colors and rounded shapes done in acrylic paints and colored pencil extend the fun, drawing children into the action and offering additional occasions for storytime and classroom discussion. The book design enhances the flow of both text and illustrations, including the colors in the font as well as in the paintings. This will be a surefire winner, especially for those communities that host local, county, or state fairs.-Sharon Grover, Hedberg Public Library, Janesville, WI (c) Copyright 2012. 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
An energetic pig loose at the fair makes a colorful mess of himself, rolling around in everything from brown mud to pink cotton candy to green grass. Fashioned after "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," the cumulative rhyming tale is as exhausting as the pig's adventure, which is ably depicted in Cole's bright acrylic and colored-pencil pictures. (c) Copyright 2012. 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
How can one small pig get into so much trouble? "I know a wee piggy / who wallowed in BROWN. / Upside down, he wallowed in brown. But brown is not for me,' he said. I think I'll add a rinse of' / RED!" And so it begins! This energetic, pitch-perfect riff on "I Know an Old Lady" introduces various colors while following a spirited young piggy on a delicious romp through a county fair. Mayhem ensues as the pig chooses his hues and frolics through a variety of substances (mud, grass, chicken feathers and tomatoes, for example) to achieve his multicolored goals. In a nice touch, the names of the colors are bolded and colored within the otherwise black text, making for easy recognition of the actual words. Youngsters will eagerly join in and sing along with the cumulative verse and laugh out loud with the lovable piggy as he scampers throughout the fair, wreaking havoc everywhere he goes. The acrylic-and-ink illustrations are replete with vibrant colors and gentle humor and will draw even the most reluctant readers in. But wait! There's a color missing--blue. What is blue at a county fair? A ribbon, of course. Does this piggy deserve one? You bet! This gleefully messy pig will prompt endless re-readings. (Picture book. 2-6) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
