Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today Blend in Kipper's Birthday
by - Written: Aug 29 '08 (Updated Aug 29 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: funny premise, great pictures
Cons: gets a little confusing...
The Bottom Line: Kipper learns a thing or two about precision of language...
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| bilbopooh's Full Review: Kipper's Birthday Books |
I love watching The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. First off, the man is from Glasgow, Scotland, so everything he says is music to my ears. Second, even if he wasn't Scottish, he's one of the funniest guys on television, especially when in his rambling opening monologues. And then, of course, there's the fact that I'm crazy about his theme song, which is incredibly catchy and closes with the tongue-twistery assertion, "Tomorrow's just the future's yesterday."
That sentence could be the theme of Kipper's Birthday, a picture book by Mick Inkpen. In the story, Kipper, a friendly brownish-red pooch with dark brown and white spots, is preparing to celebrate his birthday with a party with his friends. He goes all out on the invitations, creating a special card for each of his friends with a portrait of the recipient on the front. It's a nice idea, but it takes so much effort that he's exhausted by the time he's finished, so he's too tired to pass them out.
That's a problem because the party is tomorrow, and the inside of the invitation says, "Please come to my birthday party tomorrow at 12 o'clock." By the time he hands out his invitations the next morning, they contain the incorrect information, and he's too harried to notice! But he sure notices when none of his buddies turn up, and being a low-tech dog, he doesn't seem to have a phone, so there's no quick and easy way of sorting out what has happened to his friends. Could it really be that they don't want to come to his party?
The pictures in this story are wonderful, from the wavery dog portraits on the fronts of Kipper's invitations to the lumpy fruitcake he bakes himself for the party. Kipper seems to live all by himself; he's less humanoid than some picture book dogs, as he doesn't wear clothes and sleeps in a doggie bed full of chew toys, but he's still more like a person than a typical dog, since he bakes, paints and has a house but no human to call his own. The three friends make the book even more fun, especially Tiger, who is captured in a fun moment of befuddlement when Kipper whizzes by and hands him the party invitations.
Inkpen has an enjoyable writing style that gets us into Kipper's head, capturing his uncomplicated emotions. I love how Kipper describes his cake (prior to baking) as "a flat thing," and his response when he discovers what a kerfuffle his invitations have caused is amusing.
"Yesterday," "today" and "tomorrow" can be tricky concepts; youngsters who agree will relate to Kipper's confusion, and it might help them to keep the words straight in the future - or at least to remember to always include an actual date on invitations!
Recommended:
Yes
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