Browsing the beginning chapter books: Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Mark Teague

Genre: Humor

Protagonists: Animals, male and female

Reading Level: J

Series: This is somewhat confused. The original easy readers were published in the late 90s, with the Acorn editions republished in 2019. However, there are new Poppleton title(s), not previously published, listed for publication, but they've been delayed several times. Good luck.

Originally reviewed in March 2021

Review: Originally published in 1997, Poppleton has been an enduring and silly character along with Cynthia Rylant's other well-known early reader characters like Henry and Mudge and Mr. Putter and Tabby.

Poppleton is introduced in his titular book as a plump, vibrantly pink city pig. Tiring of the city, he moves to a charming small house in a stereotypical, suburban small town. There he grows a garden, visits the library, and enjoys getting to know his neighbors, including a friendly llama named Cherry Sue and a goat named Fillmore. Rylant invests these simple activities with humor and charm; Poppleton enjoys the friendliness of Cherry Sue until it gets to be too much and, at a loss as to how to talk to her, squirts her with a hose! A whole chapter is devoted to his regular library day and his thorough enjoyment of reading adventure stories. The third chapter shows him eating cake (and trying to take medicine) with his friend Fillmore the goat who just needs a little more cake to make him feel better.

Teague's vibrantly colored illustrations show the fresh pink of Poppleton, bright green of the trees and lawns, and clean white picket fences and houses. The pictures have a gently humorous air, but not an overtly silly one, letting the words speak for themselves.

This is a more challenging early reader, which I would characterize as intermediate. Although the sentences are short and choppy, "Poppleton went to the library every Monday. Monday was always Poppleton's library day." the text includes more complex vocabulary as well as dialogue.

In 2019 Scholastic republished Poppleton as part of its Acorn imprint. While most of the Acorn (and Branches) titles are new, a few are reissues in a new format. Although the text and illustrations are reformatted to fit the smaller, more trim size of the new format, the basic content remains the same. However, I did notice that Teague's illustrations in the Acorn editions are somewhat muted, having lost the glossy color of the original.

Verdict: The Acorn reissues are mostly out of stock; possibly others have noticed and objected to the poor quality of the reproductions of the illustrations. The original titles are still in print, mostly in prebound editions, and if your budget allows I would collect either or both if they remain popular with your readers.

Revisited: The publication of these is odd and most of the original editions are now out of print, with what appears to be an original addition to the story continually being delayed in publication. However, my patrons who like Rylant's gentle style are firm fans of these and don't seem to mind the poor reproductions, so I make an extra effort to collect them.

ISBN: 9781725430679; Acorn edition published 2019; Purchased for the library