Cynthia Rylant

{My thoughts} – Poppleton is a fun series for children. It’s about a pig that well isn’t exactly common in his ways and beliefs. He has an odd way about going about things and a different type of humor to most the other characters within the pages of the books.

This is a book that has a couple of short stories within the pages. The illustrations and the text go hand and hand. They help the child to be able to imagine what the author and the illustrator are both trying to convey to the reader. The illustrations are well done and are a great portrayal of the text. The text I think sometimes is a bit much on a few of the pages, but for the most part it is simple and easy for a child to read and follow a long with.

I did enjoy this book as much as I’d enjoyed the first book in the series. I do need to get a hold of the second as I realize I’d skipped over it some how. I look forward to reading more in this series in the near future!… (more)

{My thoughts} – This is a series of books that are in the middle of being republished. They are a loved children’s series that is fairly popular. I am actually enjoying the fact that Scholastic has decided to release them under the Acorn brand.

Poppleton is a fun pig. He lives a simple life and has a nice set of friends. He enjoys spending time with his friends, going to the library and helping his friends when they aren’t feeling well.

This book is written in short sentences on each page, which helps to not overwhelm the young reader. It is nicely illustrated so that the images and the story blend nicely with one another.

At the end of the book is some added content including how to draw your very own Poppleton. I found that to be rather neat. I am always interested in seeing how the illustrators create their illustrations.

I look forward to reading more books in this series as they are released. I also can’t wait to share these books with my littles when they are old enough to start reading them!… (more)

I found some of these stories incredibly sweet, some sad and/or touching, some painful or cruel, and some felt rather . . . pointless. Not that a story exactly has to have a point - certainly I enjoy a good vignette or slice-of-life - but a few of these didn't even feel like there was much of a window or draw to them in that vein.

There is, also, of course, some mention of animal cruelty and animal death, and some that was probably not intended to read as animal cruelty, exactly (a fair few things have changed in how we treat animals or think of as acceptable treatment in the past 40 years), but was still less than comfortable.

'Planting Things' was definitely my favourite in the collection.… (more)