Sir PBJ strikes again! (More details on the first post). This time with With Toot & Puddle/Charming Opal by Hollie Hobbie, Little Brown and Company. 2003. And Opal really is charming! The cover is striking with it’s strongly contrasted black background and apple-green grass and Opal, cousin to Puddle the pig, decked out in puffed sleeves, an oversized bonnet and mischievous gleam in her eye.
But it seems the cover was reconsidered and rolled out again in 2011 with one of the inner illustrations. A bit more personality? Perhaps.
Hollie Hobbie’s master watercolors are stunning. As we are introduced to our main character stepping off the train at Woodcock Paddock Station the loose yet fine details are not photo-realistic, but convince us just the same of the normalcy of a well-dressed pig among humans stepping onto the sunlit platform. Each perfectly composed illustration tells a story worthy of framing and admiring on any castle wall. But the simple vignettes only loosely tie the plot together failing on their own to compel the reader onward. The plot itself is familiar – a loose tooth, it’s disappearance, the inevitable retrieval and the appearance of a tooth fairy. All these scenes are cute as a button, but the draw to turn a page relies strongly on the reader’s desire to view the next illustration – which is more than good enough for me!
This sounds like a real cute story. Funnily enough, I like the first cover a little more than the second (the simple lines) …. then again it could be just me. Either-way she looks like a real little mischievous pig to me out for a lot of fun.
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I agree. I would hang the second cover on the wall though!
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I’m like Diane…I like the first cover better, too. I will have to pick this up at the library. Sounds very cute.
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I would love to know what made them change it.
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One of my childhood idols, Hollie Hobbie. Also adored Tasha Tudor. Toot and Puddle books were very popular with my children too!
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I ‘studied’ a lot of HH myself – copied like crazy! And surprisingly so I like Tasha Tudor’s gardens even more than her books!
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I also liked the first cover better 🙂
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Yep!
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I love Toot & Puddle, but haven’t read Charming Opal. Love Holly Hobbie’s illustrations, though – so gorgeous!
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HH truly is a master!
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I would love to spend a day hanging out with Toot & Puddle! Holly Hobbie’s illustrations are always beautiful and sweet.
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What a wonderful idea – and what would your T&P character name be?
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Interesting book! I like both of the covers. To the library!
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Great sentiment! The library is my second home.
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Hello! They are absolutely beautiful!
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Pretty in pig!
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