What Pete Ate from A to Z

by Maira Kalman

Overview

Is there anything Pete won't eat? Poppy Wise's sweet but unruly dog starts with Nico's accordion and works his way through the alphabet, making a nuisance of himself by leaving nothing untouched, not even glue sticks or Uncle Norman's underpants. Despite Pete's ravenous ways, a frazzled Poppy Wise can't help loving him. Kids will laugh at Pete's impossible cuisine, adults will appreciate the offbeat sense of humor, and both will love the artwork that perfectly captures the fun of the text in this unique alphabet book only Maira Kalman could create.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399233623
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/01/2001
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	447,236
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.44(h) x 0.35(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

In her own words: "born. bucolic childhood. culture-stuffed adolescence. played piano. stopped. danced. stopped. wrote. discarded writing. drew. reinstated writing. married Tibor Kalman and collaborated at iconoclastic yet successful design studio. wrote and painted children's books. worried. took up Ping-Pong. relaxed. wrote and painted for many magazines.  cofounded the Rubber Band Society. amused. children: two. dog: one."

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

November 15, 1949

Place of Birth:

Tel Aviv, Israel

Education:

New York University, 1967-70

Website:

http://www.MairaKalman.com

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Kalman unleashes her extravagant whimsy in this loquacious alphabet book. (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Richly witty in both the text and the illustrations. (The New York Times Book Review)

Editorial Reviews

Kalman unleashes her extravagant whimsy in this loquacious alphabet book. (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Richly witty in both the text and the illustrations. (The New York Times Book Review)

From the Publisher

Kalman (Next Stop Grand Central) unleashes her extravagant whimsy in this loquacious alphabet book, "in which a certain dog devours a myriad of items which he should not." Shaggy yellow Pete, staring benignly from the book's flame-red cover, is an omnivore. According to his astonished owner, who speaks in a torrent of interjections and parenthetical asides, Pete first dined on an "accordion. All of it." Pete's torso takes on the instrument's shape as he springs in the air. He next "ate a bouncing ball that belonged to uncle Bennie's dog Buster. (Buster is no bargain. He barks all the time, but still...)." A wan fellow stands with a frowning white bulldog at his feet, gesturing at a picture of the vanished ball; empty chairs in a composition reminiscent of Matisse augment the sense of tongue-in-cheek tragedy. Pete proceeds through the letters of the alphabet, enjoying sticky stuff ("Gooey gluey dog"), "Mrs. Parsley's pink pocketbook" and a pair of "underpants. Uggh!" A loose story line emerges as Pete eats Bennie's money ("Now Bennie has no money [none] to buy Buster a new ball...") and the Parsleys make multiple appearances. Kalman paints affectionate portraits of the unstoppable Pete, the now-missing objects and their disappointed owners, and her hand-printed text acts as an element of the illustrations. Her overblown alliteration and fabulous gouaches gush with glamour. All ages. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Pete is a dog of alphabetic appetites, who eats everything, from cousin Rocky's accordion to a whole lot of yo-yos. What he will not eat, however, is his "Zug Zug Dog Grub (zip, zilch, zero.) Can you blame him?" Although the work dutifully features representations of each letter in cursive script as well as both upper- and lower-case Roman letters, this is clearly not your beginning alphabet book. Some of the letters are glossed with alliterative energy-for "H": "He ate half (1/2) of my homework. But did Mrs. Hoogenschmidt believe me? HA! (Hardly.) Horrible dog."-but others are illustrated so subtly that the reader loses touch with the theme. The typography has a baroque, expansive quality in keeping with Pete's excesses, but unconventional capitalization and coloring muddy the alphabetical relationships further. The paintings carry Kalman's (Next Stop Grand Central, 1998, etc.) signature zany energy, with Pete, a blond, bearded mutt, frequently portrayed with the remains of his unconventional diet hanging out of his mouth. The practice of using the alphabet as an organizing principle for a children's book is a long and honored one, but this is an example of one of its pitfalls. While it begins with promise, it has no actual narrative and the reader loses energy by the time the 26th letter rolls around. For an equally fizzy celebration of doggy greed that manages to maintain its momentum, try this year's Swollobog, by Alistair Taylor (p. 339). (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews