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Summary
Summary
Albert the duck helps the animal children of Pleasant Valley School prepare a Thanksgiving feast.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Albert, the taciturn, always helpful goose, and the children of Pleasant Valley plant and tend a garden to be harvested for the Thanksgiving Feast. However, Patsy Pig, President of the PTA, repeatedly sends Albert notes soliciting his help to build a table, fold paper turkeys, and other such tasks, including baking pumpkin pizza for the feast, completely interrupting the harvest. Pushed to his limits, Albert leaves Patsy a note stating, ``Glad to help. But did anyone think of the vegetables?'' Then, even Patsy reports to the garden to help, and it is a wonderful Thanksgiving after all. Patsy's hand-printed notes (courteous, polite, and presumptive), which comprise most of the text, are followed by watercolor and pen-and-ink pictures of Albert completing the current tasks. Luscious, full-page illustrations depict the garden and school scenes and other action. In the final joyous scene celebrating helpfulness, cooperation, and community spirit, the animals are arrayed in traditional (though perhaps not historically accurate or politically correct) Pilgrim and Indian costumes as they share the fruits of their labors. A charming story and an appealing presentation.-Virginia Opocensky, formerly at Lincoln City Libraries, NE (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Not even the Pilgrims were as busy or as put-upon as Albert, the endearing maintenance man-er, duck-of the Pleasant Valley school district. When P.T.A. President Patsy Pig presses Albert into service with Thanksgiving preparations (her syrupy, pleading notes-complete with smiley-face signature-are reproduced on several spreads), guess who winds up doing all the work? Albert works his feathers to the bone, toiling far into the night, assembling turkey decorations, whipping up his ``scrumptious pumpkin pizza pies''-the sight of Albert twirling pizza dough aloft while balanced on one web is easily worth the price of admission. Ages 5-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Albert, the amicable goose that has appeared in previous picture books, assists the children of the local school and their parents in preparations for a Thanksgiving feast. The text, presented in epistolary form, is effectively balanced and enhanced by watercolor and ink illustrations. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Albert (Albert's Field Trip, 1993, etc.), the witless fowl, is out in the garden readying for the harvest. Along comes a rather bullying note from Patsy Pig, urging Albert to build a harvest table for the next day's Thanksgiving feast. Albert complies--he wouldn't think of rocking the boat. He dutifully submits to all the ensuing demands: for decorations, to police the picnic grounds for litter, for emptying the corn crib, for baking pumpkin pizza pies. He does so without joy, without rancor, without any discernable emotion. Albert's not so much a team player, he's just a chump; not a duck but a dweeb. This is pitiful stuff: a pandering text (``Albert helped the children plant the garden. They cared for it together and watched it grow'') set to uninspired watercolors. The last, creepily moralizing page, in which all come to help Albert (he had laid a little guilt--not too much, mind you, just a bit--at Patsy Pig's doorstep), is a dismal failure. Who are these opportunists and who cares? Nothing can save this story, nothing should. (Fiction/Picture book. 5-8)
Booklist Review
Ages 5-7. Albert, the hardest-working duck in Pleasant Valley, is the number-one helper for the PTA-sponsored Thanksgiving feast. Patsy Pig keeps writing him notes about building tables, harvesting vegetables, and making pumpkin pizzas. Every time Albert finishes one task, along comes another note (reproduced as part of the pictures) from Patsy. The story itself may be more understandable to harried adults than to picture-book listeners, but they'll get the gist of it, and they'll certainly enjoy the artwork, some full page, some four to a page, expertly executed and filled with a cast of appealing animals looking especially spiffy when dressed in Thanksgiving garb. A recipe for pumpkin pizzas, which, thankfully, is more like pie, appears on the back cover. ~--Ilene Cooper