From Booklist
Does Rufus Leroy Williams III ever want to
go to school! Sure, he is a piglet, but he has got a beloved picture book, and
he wants to be able to read it. After observing human students, he figures out
what he needs to be admitted: a backpack! Suitably backpacked, Rufus is taken
before the principal, who shuts him down. “Because pigs track mud in the halls,”
he says. “They play leapfrog in class, and they start food fights in the
cafeteria.” Next Rufus acquires a lunch box and then a nap-time blanket, but the
principal maintains that pigs disrupt school in a dozen different ways. It is
only when Rufus reveals that he wants to learn to read that the principal
reconsiders. Griswell’s list of imagined pig offenses is hilariously random
(apparently pigs like to knock over block towers, leave nose prints on the
windows, etc.), and each trespass is painted by Gorbachev with a maximum of
pink, potbellied cuteness. The final pages take an odd sidestep into the
inspirational, but otherwise this is a pure porcine pleasure. Preschool-Grade 1.
--Daniel Kraus
"A warm, gently humorous story for kids who are looking to school with
anticipation, not trepidation." —Publishers Weekly
No comments:
Post a Comment