Ol Bloo's Boogie Woogie Band and Blues Ensemble
Gr 1-3–Many readers will recognize the cover silhouette of four animals standing tall on one another's backs. The donkey, dog, cat, and rooster are surely those familiar music makers from Bremen. Huling casts them as the Boogie-Woogie Band and Blues Ensemble in this humorous spin on the Grimms' tale. As in Puss in Cowboy Boots (S & S, 2002), she sets her retelling in the rural South. Ol' Bloo Donkey, overhearing Farmer Brown's decision that “we can't afford to feed no critter that can't work,” runs off “to seek fame and fortune, hee-hawin' all the way.” He sets his sights on singing in a New Orleans honky-tonk and soon acquires a band of sorry cohorts. As expected, nightfall brings them to a cabin occupied by “three rough, tough, ugly-lookin' thieves, jest glarin' at one another and pickin' their teeth with their knives.” Huling has fun with dialogue and details, casting them in down-home language for a fulsome embellishment of the spare original. Sørensen's oils are softly fulsome, too, focusing on the homely, comic personalities of the animals and humans. Small, black-silhouette scenes facing many paintings are a suggestive tie to the original tale. Though the narrators are a bit loquacious, the rhythmic prose moves nicely. Some of the jazzy terms will be more familiar to adults, who are probably the most likely audience anyway for this spoof. The story should read aloud well, and the One-Eyed Lemony Cat all puffed up and screechin' in the match light of the thief will scare and delight many a viewer.–Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Bostonα(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.