The Pets to the Rescue easy reader series presents true stories of animals that have saved lives, providing a dose of realistic drama along with controlled vocabulary and short sentences. Clements (The School Story, p. 582, etc.) relates the story of a woman named Carol who helps feed a feral cat at a nursing home and eventually adopts one of the cat’s kittens. Carol and her husband already have three adult cats, but they add the orange kitten to their family and name him Ringo because he uses his paw to hit at a door like a drum. After Ringo grows up, Carol and Ray (and the other cats) all mysteriously fall sick, with everyone sleeping too much. Ringo beats on the front door until Carol follows him outside, where he digs in the ground near the house and uncovers a broken gas pipe that has been leaking into the house. Ringo subsequently achieves his 15 minutes of fame. Young animal-lovers will enjoy Ringo’s dramatic story, complemented by Beier’s (Sybil Ludington’s Midnight Ride, not reviewed, etc.) watercolor illustrations of a cozy country setting and an appealing marmalade-colored cat. This easy reader’s design features two or three sentences per page with varied text placement, a large type-size, and much white space, creating a satisfying reader at the first-grade level with a built-in safety lesson as well. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82915-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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