Poppleton befriends his neighbor Cherry Sue, goes to the library, and helps a cranky friend take a pill by hiding it in a piece of cake, in the first of ten picture books designed for the youngest readers. - (Baker & Taylor)
Poppleton the pig makes a friend, reads a library book about adventure, and helps a sick friend get better - (Baker & Taylor)
Booklist Reviews
Gr. 1^-2. Poppleton is the new pig in town. He makes friends with his neighbor, Cherry Sue, but all she wants to do is feed Poppleton--oatmeal in the morning, toasted cheese in the afternoon, spaghetti at night. The food frenzy goes on day after day until Poppleton soaks Cherry Sue with his hose. He's tired of sharing meals, but it turns out Cherry Sue thought he'd be hurt if she stopped preparing food for him. In a second, rather plotless chapter, Poppleton visits the library on Mondays; in the last installment, Poppleton helps a friend take his medicine. Poppleton is an appealing character, especially the way he is drawn by Mark Teague, but the vignettes themselves lack zip. Still, this is an attractive package, and the art alone will draw kids in. Once there, they won't mind using the book to brush up on their reading skills. ((Reviewed February 1, 1997)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews
Horn Book Guide Reviews
Three short, episodic chapters follow the mundane but amiable escapades of the portly pig Poppleton, who becomes best friends with an alluring llama named Cherry Sue; spends Mondays engrossed in reading adventures at the library; and nurses his billy goat friend Fillmore through an illness. Droll illustrations enliven these slight but homey stories for beginning readers. Copyright 1998 Horn Book Guide Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
~ The first book in a proposed series of easy readers from the usually reliable Rylant (The Bookshop Dog, p. 1055) is an unqualified flop. Poppleton, dressed in coat, tie, and bowler, tires of city life and moves to a small town. Three stories follow that require neither a small-town setting nor a recent move. In the first, ``Neighbors,'' the limits of friendship are excessively defined when Cherry Sue invites Poppleton over too often, and he sprays her with the garden hose (instead of simply turning down the invitation) in his frustration over the situation. ``The Library'' shows how serious Poppleton is about his library day- -every Monday--as he sits at a table, spreads out his belongings, and reads an adventure. In ``The Pill,'' a sick friend who needs medicine asks Poppleton to disguise his pill in one of the many pieces of cake he consumes, recalling the tale in which Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad try to make some cookies inaccessible, but cannot thwart their own appetites. The stories are unimaginative and poorly plotted, without the taut language and endearing humor of Rylant's Henry and Mudge tales or her Mr. Putter and Tabby books. Teague's scenes of a small town are charming but have no real story in which to take root, and the book is printed on cardboard-weight stock that all but overwhelms the format. (Fiction. 4-7) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
City pig Poppleton adjusts to small-town life in this understated and roundly appealing chapter book. In "Neighbors," the polite Poppleton tries to think up a polite way to say "no thanks" to Cherry Sue, a friendly llama who invites him to breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. When his aggravation expresses itself as rudeness, Cherry Sue admits that she didn't know how to stop issuing invitations without hurting Poppleton's feelings, and the two become best friends. The second vignette, "The Library," details Poppleton's reading ritual, which demands solitude. Finally, "The Pill" introduces Fillmore, a sick goat who refuses to take his pill unless Poppleton hides it in a cake, whereupon the stubborn goat eats all the other slices until he reaches the one with the medicine: " `I can't eat that one,' he said. `It has a pill.' " As in Rylant's other series for beginning readers (Henry and Mudge; Mr. Potter and Tabby), her concise sentences mimic the characters' good manners and wryly point up the failures of etiquette. Teague contributes fetching watercolor-and-pencil images of the pudgy pig, slender llama and dignified goat; the compositions are airier and the palette lighter than in his Pigsty or The Secret Shortcut. The end pages offer a satisfying bird's-eye view of the quaint, cozy neighborhood, with all three characters strolling the sidewalks. Ages 4-7. (Mar.)
School Library Journal Reviews
Poppleton, a most interesting pig, lives in a charming house in the country in this three-chapter beginning reader. In the first chapter, instead of submitting indefinitely to an overly friendly neighbor's ministrations, he finally tells her, though not without first making a muddle of it, that he needs time to himself. In the second, he shows how much he values reading, for not even the temptations of a lovely afternoon tea or an exciting parade stand in the way of his Monday library day. The final story reveals Poppleton's sense of humor as he joins a sick friend in bed when it becomes clear that there is a very palatable way to take pills. With his aerial view on the endpapers, Teague ushers readers into the pig's small country town. His large, acrylic cartoons introduce many humorous touches: a chicken on rollerblades; a framed picture of Poppleton's sociable neighbor, waving, of course; a picture of a can on the wall in a goat friend's house. The characters' facial expressions and body language greatly enhance the text. Rylant titles this Book One. Readers will be happy to know there are other Poppleton adventures in the wings. Copyright 1998 School Library Journal Reviews
