School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-The text for this book comes from a nonsense poem written by Corbett in the late 19th century. Three not-so-wise ladies go for a walk, lose their way, become frightened at the prospect of meeting bears, and attempt to sail home using a ladder as a raft and a feather fan as a sail. The poem is mildly amusing, but not laugh-out-loud funny. Han's illustrations are relentless in their intensity. The characters-women, farm animals, and bears-are either grinning so broadly their faces would hurt, or sobbing wildly. The colors of the landscape are unnaturally bright and vivid, and the constant swirling lines that make it seem as if even stationary objects are on the go have a dizzying effect. Libraries owning Jack Prelutsky's Scranimals (Greenwillow, 2002) or Jane Yolen's Animal Fare (Harcourt, 1994; o.p.) already have better nonsense choices to offer.-Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
There are three of them, and they're elderly and female, but they're certainly not wise-and therein lies the fun of this nonsense rhyme by Corbett, a 19th-century poet. The trio sets off for a walk-"One carried a basket to hold some berries,/ One carried a ladder to climb for cherries,/ the third, and she was the wisest one,/ Carried a fan to keep off the sun." Spooked by some ursine-shaped clouds (as Han interprets it, at any rate), the women fear that they might be pursued by a ravenous bear, attempt a silly escape atop a pile of rocks and succeed in getting blown out to sea: "And every time the waves rolled in,/ Of course the poor things were wet to the skin." With a lot of luck and a smidgen of goofy ingenuity, however, they end up safely back at home, in Han's spirited spreads if not in Corbett's open-ended poem. The artist revels in portraying the women's Wagnerian emotions, their zaftig figures and their slapstick responses to the comic calamity (pantaloons can be glimpsed on more than one occasion). Undulating shapes and striations of high-octane color define the fanciful landscape, echoing the singsong meter of the rhyme. Ages 3-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
