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Trapani, Iza
9 Reviews
(3)
PS
This amusing rhyming tale starts out like the traditional song but soon takes a different track, as Old MacDonald discovers escaped zoo animals wreaking havoc on his farm. With its genial illustrations, singable "E-I-E-I-O" refrain, and concluding visual jokes (à la Peggy Rathmann's Good Night, Gorilla), this would make a good storytime choice. Musical notation is appended.
Reviewer: Martha Sibert
(4)
PS
A singsongy rhymed text describes how Gabe adores monsters, but Goon, the "real live monster" in his closet, is terrified of children. When the two meet, Gabe mocks Goon's fear--until Goon discovers something that scares Gabe and evens the score. The cartoony mixed-media illustrations show a big, purple, non-scary monster being afraid, which children may find entertaining.
Reviewer: Rebecca Fox
(4)
PS
Old King Cole invites nursery-rhyme characters to a ball, only to fall asleep during the festivities. The accompanying verses dutifully detail the efforts of familiar characters to wake him up. Finally, the Queen of Hearts entices him with her sweet-smelling tarts. The lively but crowded scenes are rendered in watercolor, gouache, ink, and colored pencil. Musical score included.
Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt
(3)
PS
This fresh twist on the traditional song brings the seasons to life by engaging all five senses as the bear experiences nature throughout the year. The text is placed to good effect, with the conclusion of the stanza after a double-page spread turn. Trapani's watercolor illustrations deftly depict the vibrant colors of the seasons. Music is included at the back.
Reviewer: Brittany Schlorff
(3)
K-3
Trapani "extends" fourteen traditional nursery rhymes and poems, writing new lines or stanzas for each, and setting them in a school populated by cheerful, scraggly dogs. Her words, though occasionally more contemporary than those of the original rhymes, mimic their rhythms well.
Reviewer: Shoshana Flax
(3)
K-3
This rollicking Halloween tale counts from one to ten and back as a ghost's ghoulish guests first come together, then flee from a herd of trick-or-treaters. Rhyming stanzas build steadily then shrink to single lines, adding to the guests' speedy departure. Humor abounds (vampires bobbing--quite successfully--for apples) in the watercolor, colored-pencil, and ink illustrations, which play with dark and light.
Reviewer: Hannah Rodgers Barnaby
(4)
PS
In this adaptation of the old folk song, Froggie proposes indiscriminately to females of different species but is spurned each time for being a frog. Finally, he meets a female frog who proposes to him. The song's rhymes are sometimes clunky; the watercolors lean too heavily on hearts and flowers but suit the story. The message--find happiness with your own kind--is for each reader to accept or reject.
Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano
(3)
PS
"...find a place that's dry / Scurry, scuttle, hide and huddle / Till the storm blows by." A family of life-jacketed bears on a river trip encounter rapids, beaver dams, a storm, and mooching lunch guests in these illustrated additional verses to the song. The new rhymes flow smoothly, and the watercolors extend plot elements from page to page. Melody, guitar chords, and all nine verses appear on the last page.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
(3)
PS
"...find a place that's dry / Scurry, scuttle, hide and huddle / Till the storm blows by." A family of life-jacketed bears on a river odyssey encounter rapids, beaver dams, a storm, and mooching lunch guests in these illustrated additional verses to the song. The new rhymes flow smoothly, and the watercolor illustrations develop and extend plot elements from page to page. Melody, guitar chords, and all nine verses appear on the last page.
Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam
9 reviews
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