Sunday, July 17, 2011

Piggie Pie

Gritch the Witch wakes up with one thing on her mind - Piggie Pie!  Unfortunately she lacks one very important ingredient - piggies.  A trip to Old MacDonald's farm should easily take care of that problem, but Gritch doesn't know just who she's dealing with.  


Alerted to her presence by a sky-written "Surrender Piggies", the pigs hurriedly disguise themselves as chickens, cows and old MacDonald himself.  


Confused by the lack of piggies on a farm that was advertised (in the yellow pages) to have piggies, Gritch's patience wears thin.  A wolf happens by and takes a moment to commiserate with her - he himself has been chasing 3 pigges for days without any luck.  


I love the way the author has tied in elements from different children's stories to create this tale.  If you've read my blog at all, you may have noticed that my favorite books are the ones with great humor and fantastic illustrations - this book has both.  It's definitely a favorite in our household!




I Need My Monster

I was immediately drawn to this book by the cover illustrations.  It happens a lot, because if I like the illustrations then there's a good chance I'll like the story.  And that's exactly what happened with this book. 


Ethan is a little boy with a monster  under his bed and he's happy with this arrangement.  Until one night, when Gabe leaves a note explaining that he'll be gone fishing for a week.  Poor Ethan doesn't know how he'll survive - he can't sleep without knowing his monster is under the bed.


Throughout the night Ethan is visited by substitute monsters, but none of them can replace Gabe's ragged breathing, nose-whistling and the scrabbling of his uncut claws.  Ethan sends each monster away, resigned to the fact that he simply won't be getting any sleep that week.  


I love this book!  The hilarious dialogue between Ethan and the monsters combined with beautiful, colorful illustrations make it a lot of fun to read.