Steve Bjorkman has drawn more than 70 children's books - and he loves pigs, according to his book jacket. ("He keeps his eyes open for swine in the sky in Irvine, California.") For "Supersnouts!" his drawings are simple and colorful - but especially, cartoon-like. His text and his illustrations have one goal: being funny. And yes, they're about a pair of superhero pigs.
Snoutbuster and Kernel Hog spot two masked people tiptoeing across the yard of the farmhouse. It's a "Code Curly Tail" - it's time to move! "So it's true, isn't it?" says a little pig named Hamlet. "You're the Superhero Pig Patrol, Hooves of Steel, and Snoutmasters of Glory!" There's superhero costumes hidden under their pig trough - and of course, goggles.
"They were on their way to fame, glory, and maybe a nice mud bath when it was all over," jokes Bjorkman - though the book is really one long joke. Hamlet joins them - dressed in blue underwear with stars on it. There's two silly burglars sneaking around in black clothes, while the flying pigs - yes, they fly - leap to "hyper-hog speed." But unfortunately, little Hamlet throws off their timing, and the Kernel hits a pile of trash cans. And then Hamlet activates his rocket lever, which propels him straight into a picket fence.
It's disappointing that all the action is in the text. (In his picture Bjorkman only draws a jump of characters tumbling down.) Ironically, Bjorkman's greatest strength is also his weakness. He can create funny drawings, and he's landed a deal to write a funny book. But it's hard to find the right balance - simply describing funny events isn't as effective, and it leaves out the other magical effects like mood, pace setting, and character. Anyone can write "The flashlights flew. The pickets poked." It takes more than just that to create a special children's book.
And some of the jokes will obviously go over the heads of young readers. Has a seven-year-old ever heard the phrase "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark?" Will they appreciate the joke about truffles? There's complicated puns like writing "SPAM(tm)-dex." And the burglars look like they feel out of a cartoon from sometime in the 1930s.
"The old hams hog-tied the burglars," Bjorkman writes at the end, and they "stacked up the stolen stuff, and congratulated each other with high hooves." But I have to wonder if kids will recognize references to the whole superheroes-with-capes genre. Or if they'll recognize the punch line at the book, when the farmer asks if his porkers could really be superheroes.
"When pigs fly," the farmer's wife replies.