guinea pigs

Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig by Deborah Hopkinson

| Tasha

Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig by Deborah Hopkinson

Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Charlotte Voake (InfoSoup)

Published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Potter’s birth, this picture book tells the true story of an event in Potter’s childhood. Beatrix loved animals from a very young age. In fact, she and her brother had quite a collection of animals over the years from a family of snails to rabbits trained to walk on a leash. Beatrix also loved to draw and paint her animals. One day, she wanted to paint a guinea pig so she borrowed one from a neighbor. The guinea was a magnificent specimen named Queen Elizabeth. Beatrix promised to return Queen Elizabeth the next morning “unharmed.” Unfortunately though, she would not be able to keep that promise!

Hopkinson adopts a wonderfully wry tone throughout this picture book where readers know that something horrible is going to befall Queen Elizabeth. There is lovely foreshadowing from the title but also from the demise of other creatures in Beatrix’s care, including the family of snails who simply dried out and lizards eaten by birds. The pacing here is delicately balanced, allowing plenty of time for the dread to creep in as Beatrix takes the guinea pig home.

Voake’s illustrations are done in pen and watercolor, showing the world of Victorian England as well as the myriad pets owned by the Potter family. Voake includes parts of Potter’s own diaries in the illustrations, showing her detailed look at her pets and also illuminating how some of them died.

This picture book offers a humorous look at young Beatrix Potter who would become known for her images of animals living through what many children do when they care for others pets or even their own. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Schwartz & Wade.

Review: Ready for Pumpkins by Kate Duke

| Tasha

ready for pumpkins

Ready for Pumpkins by Kate Duke

Hercules, or Herky for short, learned a lot being the classroom guinea pig in Miss MacGuffey’s first grade.  He learned to paint, he learned about Halloween, but best of all, he learned that he could plant a garden from seeds.  And Herky had seeds from the Halloween pumpkin that he had saved in his cage.  So when he was taken for the summer out to the country, he knew he just had to plant his own garden.  He met Daisy, a rabbit, who helped him find a sunny place to plant the seeds.  Herky dug up the dirt, planted the seeds, and watered them.  But then he had to be patient as they grew, and that was the hardest part!  The plants grew, flowers appeared, and finally pumpkins.  But Herky had to return to school before they turned orange!  Will he ever know how his pumpkins turned out?

This is a charming mix of classroom pet story and gardening.  Duke makes Herky quite a character.  He’s impatient to the point of digging up the seeds to see what is happening, angry when the birds and beetles attack his garden, and yet he is also hard working enough to make a garden in the first place.  The writing is simple and reads aloud easily, making this a good book to share with a fall class.

Duke’s art is full of simple lines and bright colors.  As the garden grows, she shows the wild beauty of the pumpkin vines, their many flowers and the slow process of pumpkins growing to maturity.  Daisy and Herky are engagingly drawn little creatures whose growing friendship mirrors that of the garden.

A great pick for pumpkin season or as an addition to spring growing books too.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House.

Nibbles: A Green Tale

| Tasha

978076145791602

Nibbles: A Green Tale by Charlotte Middleton

The guinea pigs of Dandeville loved eating dandelion leaves.  Nibbles loved eating them even more than he loved playing soccer.  He ate them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  But then dandelion leaves started to run low.  Cabbage began replacing it on restaurant menus and dandelion leaves became a hot commodity on the Internet.  Eventually, there were no more dandelion leaves because they had all been eaten.  All but one dandelion that was growing outside of Nibbles’ window.  Even though Nibbles wanted badly to eat the leaves, he didn’t.  Instead he started to do research on dandelion and began to take very good care of his dandelion.  He waited patiently until it grew seeds and then headed to a tall hill where he blew the seeds into the air.  Soon the fields were filled with dandelions again, and Nibbles had found something besides eating dandelions that he loved.  Growing them!

This is a very appealing book that takes the lesson of renewable resources to a level that even small children can understand.  Middleton’s brilliant choice was to use dandelion greens as the scarce resource, because we all have dandelions taking over our lawns and gardens.  In this way she made something that we see as a nuisance into a commodity.   Middleton’s mixed media art is friendly, filled with round-bellied guinea pigs and plenty of green.  The hair tufts and whiskers done in real fuzz and string make the illustrations engaging and interesting. 

A great choice when talking with preschoolers about going green or gardening, this book will be a welcome addition to units and story times.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Marshall Cavendish.