Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Lousy Rotten Stinkin' Grapes by Margie Palatini


Book Jacket

Fox eyed a bunch of tantalizing grapes hanging from a vine growing high on a tree.

"Those juicy morsels are for me," he said with a grin.

The problem was, Fox was only so high...and the grapes were so, so, so high.

"No matter," said he.  "I am sly.  Clever.  Smart.  After all, I am a fox."

He made a plan...

And what a plan it is!  Here Margie Palatini and Barry Moser, who collaborated on Earthquack! and The Three Silly Billies, give an ingenious--and hilarious--twist to the well-loved Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Grapes."

Review

Okay, I've got a personal bone to pick--I love foxes!  They are adorable, and I like when they are straight out clever.  Not when they think they are clever but are actually dumb, like in this story.

Regardless of that, do I like this book?  Not really.  The message is good--don't turn your back on something good just because you needed help to get it.  But I wasn't a fan of the way it was written.  The dialogue is almost stream-of-consciousness, with a lot of dashes and elipses.  It doesn't read like a children's story at all.

The pictures, however, are stunning. 

My love of foxes might be coloring my review, but I didn't find much extraordinary about this book. 

Three out of five hanging possums.

Release Date: August 2009
Reading Level: Grade K+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: MONARCH

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