Thunder Pug by Kim Norman and Keika Yamaguchi

Percy was a pug, and Petunia was a pig. 

Even so, they loved doing many of the same things:

Carving trails through lanky weeds, 

puffing dandelion seeds,

playing twilight hide-and-seek,

lapping puddles cheek to cheek. 

Thunder Pug is the story of Percy and Petunia, a pug and a pig who are the best of friends. Some of their activities are the same but they also do pug and pig things on their own. Percy is perfectly happy waving goodbye to Petunia when she goes off to the fair. But, when she comes home with a blue ribbon and wears it everywhere, Percy starts to get a little envious and lonely because Petunia doesn't have time for him, anymore. Then, he happens across a comic book.

"Thunder Man" is the star of the comic book and reading about him gives Percy an idea. Petunia has her blue ribbon; Percy can have a cape! He starts wearing a cape and doing good, but he isn't satisfied. Then, he realizes what's missing. He needs a sidekick. Enter Pink Lightning, Petunia in her blue ribbon and a cape. Together, they set off to save a young raccoon dangling above a patch of prickly plants. They manage to rescue the raccoon (sort of) and get tangled up. But, everything is better with a friend.

Highly recommended - This is going to sound weird for a "highly recommended" book, but the first time I read Thunder Pug, I was disappointed. I love the illustrations but I just didn't get the point of the story. It felt like there were too many ups and downs. This is good, but that's unsatisfying, etc. I was a little baffled by the fact that there are two spreads that rhyme while the rest of the book does not. So, I decided I needed to read Thunder Pug aloud to see if that made a difference. And, it definitely did. Thunder Pug is easy to dramatize and when read aloud even the blend of non-rhyming and rhyming bits suddenly made sense. I found myself pointing at things and asking the cat questions, just like I would a child. I even laughed a couple times. The cat wasn't very responsive, but I discovered that Thunder Pug is a book that just needs to be read aloud to be appreciated. Now that I know how fun it is to read, I'm planning to drag my copy of Thunder Pug along to read to the grandchildren, when next I see them.

Other books I've reviewed by Kim Norman (click on the title to see my review):

Ten on the Sled
This Old Van

My thanks to Sterling Children's Books for the review copy!

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

This Old Van by Kim Norman and Carolyn Conahan and a Fiona Friday pic

This Old Van by Kim Norman, Illustrated by Carolyn Conahan
Copyright 2015
Sterling Children's Books - Picture Book/Counting (Ages 4 - 7)
30 pp.


This old van, she passed TWO,
friendly flaggers wave her through.

With a click clack rattle rack,
tooting at the crew,
this old van says,
"GOOD-BYE, TWO!"


Before I said "yes" to reviewing This Old Van, I already knew I couldn't pass up a book starring a van covered in the old "flower power" and peace-sign design. My hippie soul adores such things (I am, in fact, wearing a peace sign T-shirt as I type). And, I did indeed love the illustrations starring a couple of aging hippies and this crazy van racing across the countryside every bit as much as I expected. But, the bonus is in the rhythm. You can tell from the excerpt above (if you know the song) that the rhythm of the verses in This Old Van is the same as that of the song "This Old Man."

So, I actually sang the entire book to the cats. No, nobody has come to haul me to a room with mattress wallpaper, yet. And, in fact, the cats seemed to enjoy it but not as much as I'm sure my granddaughter will when I send it to her.

Highly recommended - A wildly fun counting book that has friendly, upbeat illustrations with plenty of detail to study, a super rhythm that allows you to sing the book to an old-fashioned tune, and unique things to count. On the page with two friendly flaggers, for example, there are also two dogs, two birds in hard hats, two bulldozers, two goats, two signs warning about falling rocks and two unexpected animals in hard hats. Loads of fun for kids and adults. Grandparents who remember the 60s will appreciate that crazy van.

It's Friday but I wanted to squeeze in a review so you get a combination post, today, including a combination of cats for Fiona Friday. I always love those moments when I find the two kitties squashed up next to each other.  It happened two or three times, this week, and I managed to catch the kitties between grooming and playing with their ribbon, on one occasion. It's possible somebody wiggled her fingers to get them to stop looking down.

Happy Friday!

©2015 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Great Christmas Crisis by Kim Norman and Jannie Ho

The Great Christmas Crisis by Kim Normal, illustrated by Jannie Ho is a big book with pages that are a double-thickness.  At first, that actually confused me, as I looked at those pages and wondered if they were supposed to open or there was some kind of mechanical or pop-up business I was missing.  Nope, they're just thick pages.  In case you're wondering, I do think nice, thick pages are a good thing.

The storyline in The Great Christmas Crisis obviously has to do with things going wrong at the North Pole.  The elves are complaining, toys are whacked up, candy is coming out wrong.  Actually, this is the best part of the book -- looking at the details of the illustrations showing things that are wrong, like a doll with the neck of her dress at her knees and the hem at her neck.  You can view some of the illustrations from The Great Christmas Crisis at Jannie Ho's website.

Santa alters his chimney-expanding machine to shrink himself and go undercover in order to figure out the problem.  But, he messes things up just as badly as the elves, melting a race-car track and turning candy canes purple with white spots.  He decides that the elves are overworked and insists that they all relax for a while, tell ho-ho jokes (like knock-knock jokes, only they begin, "Ho ho!  Who's there?"), play games, sit in front of the fire, meditate, etc.

But, there isn't much time till Christmas, so they really need to find a solution.  Finally, Mrs. Claus comes to the rescue, advising Santa to use his altered shrinking machine to make the days longer.  Kind of a silly solution, but The Great Christmas Crisis a book for small children and I have a feeling mine would have absolutely loved this book -- both of them.  Remember my comment about the fact that one of my children didn't like books in which the illustrations are too "busy" (too much going on)?  In this case, there's a lot going on, but the illustrations are so crisp that I think even the child who disliked busy illustrations would have pored over these and enjoyed the details.  They're not overwhelming but they are interesting enough to keep your eyes moving for a while.

Recommended - Delightful illustrations are what really made The Great Christmas Crisis a winner, in my humble opinion.  The story is a nice simple dilemma with a magical solution, great for holiday reading.  The story is told in verse and it has a comfortable rhythm for reading aloud.


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.