Pork and Beans: Play Date

Stine, Jovial Bob; Aruego, Jose; Dewey, Ariane

ISBN 10: 0590415794 ISBN 13: 9780590415798

Publisher: Scholastic, 1989

Synopsis

Pork and Beans spend a fun day playing with Billy and making up games such as Bad Cold, Bump Tag, and Wagon Pull

About this title

Reviews

PreSchool-K-- As siblings will, Pork and Beans, two piglets, launch into a heated bicker battle when Mrs. Pig announces that their friend Billy, a goat, is coming for a play date. After all, it's important to know who is whose best friend, and when Billy announces that his choice is Henry (who never appears) that argument is resolved. Arguments continue, though, as each game chosen by the trio victimizes one of the players. In Bad Cold, Pork and Beans sneeze all over Billy, while, in Bump Tag, Billy and Pork repeatedly knock Beans down. As each game in turn reduces one of the participants to tears, Mrs. Pig intervenes, simply telling them to "Play another game." When Billy's mother arrives on the scene, the three simultaneously burst into tears because, "We are having too much fun!" Anyone intimate with the ways of children knows that childhood events often start off on the wrong foot; unfortunately, this play date never gets onto the right one. The unrelenting meanness of the play is unsettling, and the ironic conclusion will be lost on preschoolers who are not generally known for their ability to step back and view their own foibles. Aruego and Dewey's distinctive illustrations do little to relieve the tensions of the situation. While the spontaneity of their line-and-wash paintings successfully captures the active nature of the play, color and motion hardly diffuse the unpleasantries. Every spread, save two, features at least one frowning, scowling, or crying character. Creative though Pork, Beans, and Billy might be, their inability to socialize is more sad than funny. --Jeanne Marie Clancy, Upper Merion Township Library, King of Prussia, PA
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590415794
• ISBN 13: 9780590415798
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32