Pirates Don't Take Baths

Starred review from January 17, 2011
A pirate's life seems just the ticket for a little pig who refuses to take his bath—"They plunder, they pillage, they sail the seas in search of treasure... but they DON'T TAKE BATHS!"—until his mother points out his propensity for seasickness. Trying to maintain the upper hand, the little pig runs through several other scenarios that might be even friendlier to the bath-adverse, only to have his mother gently deliver reality checks ("It's hard to poop and pee in zero gravity," she notes when he claims to be an astronaut). Can mother and son find common ground? Yes, but not before Segal (Far, Far Away) treats readers to some wonderfully imagined watercolor and pencil fantasies starring his stubborn, wide-eyed, and very pink hero. The flattened, geometric renderings and muted palette could have easily fallen flat. But Segal gives each spread a sly, silly magic, whether the piglet is having a sleepless night under the stars in the Old West, dodging a walrus and whale in the arctic circle, or trying to keep his cool in the middle of the desert. Ages 3–5.

February 1, 2011

Echoes of Runaway Bunny color this exchange between a bath-averse piglet and his patient mother. Using a strategy that would probably be a nonstarter in real life, the mother deflects her stubborn offspring's string of bath-free occupational conceits with appeals to reason: "Pirates NEVER EVER take baths!" "Pirates don't get seasick either. But you do." "Yeesh. I'm an astronaut, okay?" "Well, it is hard to bathe in zero gravity. It's hard to poop and pee in zero gravity too!" And so on, until Mom's enticing promise of treasure in the deep sea persuades her little Treasure Hunter to take a dive. Chunky figures surrounded by lots of bright white space in Segal's minimally detailed watercolors keep the visuals as simple as the plotline. The language isn't quite as basic, though, and as it rendered entirely in dialogue—Mother Pig's lines are italicized—adult readers will have to work hard at their vocal characterizations for it to make any sense. Moreover, younger audiences (any audiences, come to that) may wonder what the piggy's watery closing "EUREKA!!!" is all about too. Not particularly persuasive, but this might coax a few young porkers to get their trotters into the tub. (Picture book. 4-6)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 1-This piglet does not want a bath, and he can back up his argument with the wildest of fantasies and the most persuasive arguments. After all, "pirates...plunder, they pillage, they sail the seas in search of treasure, but they DON'T TAKE BATHS!" Neither do cowboys, Eskimos (it's too cold to bathe), knights (a knight's armor might rust), denizens of the desert (where there's no water), or astronauts (how could you take a bath in zero gravity?). As her child's imagination takes flight, Mama pig cleverly guides her youngster past his stubborn refusal and visions of a tub-free world as she questions with humor and a practical mind. Would he really want to be an Eskimo and eat whale blubber and walrus liver? Her gentle reasoning leads him to realize that imagination might make even a nightly chore such as bathing fun. Segal's fanciful cartoon pigs capture the expressions of delight, surprise, and horror as they fill the adventurer's roles in a succession of little pig's wild color-washed scenarios. Children and parents alike might recognize these voices heard at the end-of-day bath time in this first-purchase selection for all libraries.-Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
Preschool-K Imaginative play fuels a toddler's stubborn rebellion in this lively picture book about a young pig who refuses to take a bath. After telling his mom that he is a pirate who plunders and pillages and sails the seas in search of treasure, the little pig announces that pirates never take baths. His mom reminds him that he gets seasick, so the pig decides to become a cowboy. Can he sleep on the cold, hard ground? The pig reconsiders and becomes a knight and then, after more discussion with his reasonable mom, an astronaut, but, he realizes, it's hard to breathe in zero gravity, and it's also hard to poop and pee. The spacious pencil-and-watercolor artwork finds the humor in all of the small, pink porcine hero's roles: a pirate with skull and crossbones on his hat; a knight on his rocking horse confronting fire-breathing dragons; and more. Finally, his wily mom shows him how to be a treasure hunter beneath the oceanright there in the bath. The parent-child tussles and fantasy scenarios are as much fun as the splashy resolution.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)