At first glance, two people could hardly be less alike than that irrepressible inventor, Junior Blossom, and Mad Mary Cantrell, rural equivalent of a bag lady. Junior is a little boy from a close-knit, if impoverished, family, newly in touch with the world since last year's triumph in The Not-lust-Anybody Family, proud of his recently built coyote trap. Mad Mary went to school with his grandfather, back when she was the daughter of the town's wealthiest citizen; but, having lost home and family, she has escaped the trap of civilization and retreated to a mountain cave, subsisting, like a vulture, on small dead animals left by cars along the road. When Junior gets caught in his own trap, it is she who finds and rescues him; and while the community organizes to "rescue" him from her, the two become friends over shared fundamentals: a pot of stew, interest in the same books, and the discovery that each yearns to speak, if only for a few minutes, with a dead father. Trust Byars to come up with a story not like anyone else's and to tell it with lightness and humor, clarity and simplicity, extracting every bit of drama from small events. Young readers entranced by the lively plot won't notice her careful, economical structure, but they'll be touched by the humanity of her marvelously quirky characters (including the persistent dog, Mud, who gets his own subplot). Rogers' soft, full-page illustrations are just right, portraits of characters at significant moments. Not to be missed.
Pub Date: Oct. 3, 1986
ISBN: 0823421449
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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