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Summary
Summary
Hercules, a classroom guinea pig, has a revelation when he watches the first graders grow plants from seeds. He wants to grow things, too! And during summer vacation (spent with the teacher's dad), he gets his chance. With the help of a friendly rabbit, Herky prepares the soil, carefully plants pumpkin seeds, and waits. And waits, and waits. One of the most important things he learns about gardening is patience. It's very hard to go back to school when fall comes--especially because his pumpkins aren't quite ready yet. But in October, the teacher's dad arrives with a big pumpkin for her class--that just mysteriously grew in his yard! And Herky begins dreaming about next year's garden . . .
Kate Duke has created a funny and charming book that shows not just how seeds grow into plants, but also how you need patience to see a long project through.
Author Notes
Kate Duke was born in New York City on August 1, 1956. She attended Duke University and took art classes in New York City. She was a children's author and illustrator. Her first book, The Guinea Pig ABC, was published in 1983. Her other works include Guinea Pigs Far and Near, What Would a Guinea Pig Do?, Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One, and Ready for Pumpkins. She also provided illustrations for other authors including Joanna Cole and William Hooks. She died on April 20, 2014 at the age of 57.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Hercules is a guinea pig in a first-grade classroom. When the kids make jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween, Herky saves some of the seeds. During the summer he is taken to a farm owned by the teacher's dad. There he befriends the resident rabbit and together they plant the seeds. Then the wait begins. The guinea pig is impatient, while Daisy tells him to "Cool it." To pass the time they tell stories, sing songs, and make up poems. Finally the stalks start growing and make a lush garden. Herky is quite dismayed when birds and bugs arrive and start nibbling on the flowers, but again Daisy is the voice of reason. There is enough for everyone. With the coming of fall, Herky is taken back to the school, and he misses his friend and the pumpkin patch. The farmer shows up in the classroom with a basket of pumpkins, saying he has no idea how they got planted. The students and the guinea pig start the cycle all over again, carving jack-o'-lanterns and saving seeds. The pen-and-ink and watercolor pictures are perfect for the story. Herky is expressively drawn and adorable. This title will join the list of pumpkin classics so popular every fall.-Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Guinea pigs are something of a specialty for Duke (The Guinea Pig ABC; One Guinea Pig Is Not Enough), and her newest one, Hercules, is a real charmer ("You can call me Herky!" he announces in a speech bubble on the opening page). While most classroom guinea pig stories take place during the school year, Duke is more interested in Herky's extracurricular hobby: growing pumpkins. On "vacation" in the country (a student's parent's farm) over the summer, Herky enlists the help of a rabbit named Daisy in putting together a pumpkin patch (never mind that Daisy's idea of help is to munch leaves and say, "Good job!"). Duke's story brims with humor of both the classroom and animal-buddy varieties, and her featherlight paintings capture every ounce of Herky's enthusiasm, impatience, and eventual satisfaction. Ages 5-8. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Classroom pet guinea pig Hercules, nicknamed Herky, gets an itch for gardening after he watches the first graders plant seeds and sees how they grow. Off in the country for summer vacation, he gets a chance to plant some pumpkin seeds with the help of his rabbit friend Daisy. Like most child-gardeners, Herky is impatient waiting for his seeds to sprout, discovering that "they dont grow faster if you yell at them...They wont grow at all if you dig them up to see what they are doing." Then, once the seeds do sprout, along come the bugs and birds -- depicted wearing little robber masks -- which requires more patience. Most pumpkin books focus on the pumpkin at the end; this one focuses on the joys and challenges of the gardening process, and Duke communicates Herkys every feeling with deftly expressive lines. Daisy watches and assists, usually while nibbling something, and occasionally tells Herky to "cool it," providing a mature contrast to Herkys exuberance. The plot is simple, and children will find many delights in the pictures, which alternate between small vignettes and more spacious paintings, allowing pre-readers to "re-read" the story to themselves. susan dove lempke (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Herky (short for Hercules) is one lucky guinea pig--perhaps the only one with his own garden. A first-grade class pet, he enjoys having the kids fawn over him and teach him things. In the spring, after noticing the delicious-looking green bean plants the class cultivated, Herky catches the gardening bug and finds a use for the seeds he squirreled away last Halloween. Summering in the country, Herky puts his escape skills to good use, meets a new rabbit-friend, Daisy, and learns that gardening isn't about instant gratification. Indeed, this is one of the book's greatest assets. Duke has captured the difficulty of waiting for the plants to grow, which many other garden-themed books miss or gloss over. And the garden-isms that Herky enumerates are sure to raise smiles. "A garden is not a place to be angry in." When paired with Duke's watercolor and pen-and-ink artwork, readers certainly won't feel angry, though they will feel empathetic with the adorably impatient guinea pig as he stamps his feet and digs up his seeds to see what they are doing, besides not growing. As Herky says, "you can't stay sad for long when you have had a garden"--nor when you have read about Herky and his first gardening experience. (Picture book. 3-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Guinea pig Hercules enjoys being the first-grade class pet, even inspiring a Halloween Herk-o-Lantern. Spring's class gardening project prompts dreams of his own garden, and opportunity arises while summering in the country. There he befriends rabbit Daisy, a gardening aficionado, who offers planting assistance and advice. However, waiting for seeds to sprout seems endless ( they don't grow faster if you jump up and down and stamp your feet ), but creating pumpkin songs and poems with Daisy helps pass the time. Alas, before the pumpkins ripen, it's back-to-school time. Hercules' peppy first-person account makes for an entertaining read, while cartoonish watercolor and pen-and-ink illustrations add playful touches, like Hercules singing on top of an overturned flowerpot, with Daisy accompanying on bucket drums. Comic-style panels and word balloons appear throughout, lending liveliness and dimension. While pumpkin specific, this is a charming, kid-friendly gardening tale that touches upon the challenges of being patient, finding pleasure in the process, and enjoying sweet anticipation.--Rosenfeld, Shelle Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Harvest APPLE Written and illustrated by Nikki McClure. 40 pp. Abrams Appleseed. $12.95. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) McClure's homage to the old-fashioned apple lands like a spirited rebuke to packaged baggies of presliced fruit and G.M. apples that never rot. Her trademark block cutouts, pared down here to black, white and red delicious, travel backward from ripe fruit to planted seed, well timed for an autumn tale about seasons and renewal. The art is gorgeous, the text is one-word-per-page minimal and the "story" is sprinkled with welcome surprises. An apple swings from its tree; a girl hides an apple in her backpack on her way to school and forgets it on the ground at recess. Think a new tree will grow there? LITTLE SWEET POTATO By Amy Beth Bloom. Illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. 32 pp. Katherine Tegen Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 7) Poor sweet potato - all that vitamin C, and still lumped together with the stuff of French fries. Bloom, a National Book Award finalist for grown-ups, turns her pen to picture books and sweet potatoes in this heartfelt and heartwarming debut about a tuber who doesn't fit in. The carrots are disdainful. The eggplants, full of themselves. "You're a lumpy, bumpy, dumpy vegetable, and we're beautiful," the flowers sneer. Luckily, in this mean-kids parable, Little Sweet Potato finds a more accepting patch of flora to plant himself in. Probably organic, too. SEED BY SEED The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman. By Esmé Raji Codell. Illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins. 32 pp. Greenwillow Books/ HarperCollins Publishers. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Codell asks readers to seat themselves at a window, looking out over a highway-covered landscape and imagine a "quiet, tree-bough-tangled world, the world before the cement was poured and the lights turned on." Codell's lilting text and Perkins's sumptuous landscapes will have urban parents ready to up-and-to-the-country. But stick around for the man's frontier life story, told here inspiration style. This is Johnny Appleseed - pioneer, reader, vegetarian, spiritualist, businessman, friend of American Indians and tamer of wolves. He planted apple seeds, too. CREEPY CARROTS By Aaron Reynolds. Illustrated by Peter Brown. 40 pp. Simon & Schuster. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Zombies, bullies, root vegetables - they're all pretty scary to children. Especially when combined in an oversize carrot. Playing off a child's worst nightmare, Reynolds shows how carrots suddenly seem to lurk in every corner, tormenting a poor bunny. The stark and atmospheric illustrations by Brown ("Children Make Terrible Pets"), working exclusively in shades of gray save the garish orange of the vegetables in question, are simply splendid. But be warned: for the 5-year-old faint of heart, the story may sting too sharply. READY FOR PUMPKINS Written and illustrated by Kate Duke. 40 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 5 to 8) Duke ("Our Guinea Pig Is Not Enough") introduces Hercules, first-grade rodent, in a multilayered tale about time, the seasons and the long, impatient wait for a full-grown pumpkin to pick. Abandoning the formula for class-pet tales, Duke shows Hercules to have a life outside the classroom. When the teacher takes Herky to her country home for the summer, he discovers his horticultural side. Especially marvelous is what Herky's accomplishment shows children: animals and plants have lives and life cycles of their own. PAMELA PAUL Woof BAILEY AT THE MUSEUM Written and illustrated by Harry Bliss. 32 pp. Scholastic Press. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) First Bailey wanted to go to school ("Bailey"). Now he wants to leave the classroom for school trips. Who can blame him when the destination is the American Museum of Natural History, that staple setting for great children's literature? Bliss's student-filled scenes recall the adventures of Ms. Frizzle's crew, with Bailey asking all the good questions. Bliss, who draws cartoons for The New Yorker, throws in choice asides for grown-ups (on the lunch menu: Soy Stuff, marked "Almost Organic"). BOOT & SHOE Written and illustrated by Marla Frazee. 40 pp. Beach Lane Books. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) A genius at capturing human expression and antics, Frazee ("The Seven Silly Eaters," "The Boss Baby," "Clementine") seems equally unrivaled at depicting canine behavior and emotion. Boot and Shoe are brothers who live peacefully in the same home, sharing food bowl and bed, but then each retreating to his own porch for rest and contemplation. One day, a scampering squirrel mixes things up; chaos ensues. Expertly drawn, full of humor and affection and beautifully arranged, "Boot & Shoe" is a jubilant romp from beginning to end. READY OR NOT, HERE COMES SCOUT! By Jill Abramson and Jane O'Connor. Illustrated by Deborah Melmon. 32 pp. Viking. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Small, cute, overeager and indiscriminately affectionate is an apt way to describe a certain alpha-strain of preschooler. Or a puppy. And really, what's the difference? Especially when the puppy, Scout, has her very own lovey too, and just wants to play and make friends. Abramson, the executive editor of The New York Times, and O'Connor, author of the phenomenally popular "Fancy Nancy" books, are sisters and co-authors of this picture book inspired by Abramson's Puppy Diaries blog and subsequent grown-up book. Billed as "A Puppy Diaries Book," Scout's friendly tale is clearly the first in a series. Note the cliffhanger: Will Taco ever warm to Scout's overtures? We need not ask the same of readers. LENORE FINDS A FRIEND A True Story From Bedlam Farm. By Jon Katz. 32 pp. Henry Holt & Company. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) A follow-up to "Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm," Lenore's genial true tale, told through lively animal photography and sweet, descriptive text, works as a stand-alone. Lenore is the last of five working dogs on Katz's upstate New York farm, and none of the other dogs want to be friends with her. (A puppy portrait reveals the obvious: jealousy.) One day, Lenore approaches Brutus, "a grumpy ram," and gives him a big kiss on the nose. "Brutus had never been kissed before. He turned away." But not for long. This is a story about friendship, and eventually, Brutus cottons to Lenore's affections. Others soon do the same. LULU WALKS THE DOGS By Judith Viorst. Illustrated by Lane Smith. 145 pp. Atheneum. $15.99. (Middle grade; ages 6 to 10) Viorst's narrator-heroine, enjoying a fresh turn after "Lulu and the Brontosaurus," is full of 'tude and doesn't care if you don't like it. A child of entitlement, Lulu is nonetheless told she needs to earn money for her latest heart's desire. Dog walking teaches her a lesson. Lulu feels like a cousin of, and a step up the chapter book ladder in difficulty from, Junie B. Jones. Smith's sharp-eyed charcoals add kick. PAMELA PAUL ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
