Like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day.
Old friends return with new wards in this beloved series.
What do a skunk and a badger know about raising baby rats? Surprisingly little. In this third installment in the Skunk and Badger series—following Egg Marks the Spot (2021)—events have led the titular roommates to welcome the young rats Zephyr and Zeno into their home this winter. At first all goes swimmingly, with Badger convinced that he has time to write his first article for Rock Hound Weekly. Unfortunately, soon the rats are constructing zip lines, barrel racing, and launching unexpected—and unasked-for—scavenger hunts while their exhausted guardians clean up. As Badger stresses over his article, Skunk calls in reinforcements in the form of his chicken friends. But when Badger accidentally hibernates at just the wrong moment, is disaster inevitable? Readers enchanted by previous installments will have no difficulty following the duo’s further adventures, though newcomers would be wise to start at the series’ beginning. Badger’s focus on his rock work feels particularly adult at times, yet Timberlake’s descriptions of his obsessions often result in lovely prose (“The land is a book written by a glacier”). Distractions aside, the beating heart of the series remains the friendship between seemingly gruff Badger and sunny Skunk. Capturing snowfall and cozy scenes indoors, Klassen’s accompanying art imbues the storytelling with both a classic feel and an understated wit.
Like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781643750071
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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