The Paraskevases (Gracie Graves and the Kids from Room 402, 1995, etc.) take readers on another foray into bizzaroland. At midnight, a young boy stands on a station platform, far from the warm precincts of his bed. A train awaits him, but his fellow passengers are a very strange assortment—blockheads, devilish types, extraterrestrials, creatures right out of an intergalactic bistro. Above the din, ever so faintly, the boy hears the train's sinister warning: ``Never coming, never coming, never coming back.'' In the dining car, he runs across another humanoid, Cecil (``I know my onions'') Bunions, a private eye. Bunions, hearing the train's mad refrain, fashions an elegant escape for the boy. The narrator bumps into Bunions a couple of weeks later and is never sure whether he's had a dream or a magical mystery tour. This piece of artful entertainment has plenty going for it—a touch of the forbidden (the boy is led to the station by a stranger), hair-raising illustrations that are ghoulish and surreal, a tone long on irony. The rhyming is imperfect, but it may not matter: This is not a book to read at bedtime. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-292884-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
A book that will make young dog-owners smile in recognition and confirm dogless readers' worst suspicions about the mayhem caused by pets, even winsome ones. Sam, who bears passing resemblance to an affable golden retriever, is praised for fetching the family newspaper, and goes on to fetch every other newspaper on the block. In the next story, only the children love Sam's swimming; he is yelled at by lifeguards and fishermen alike when he splashes through every watering hole he can find. Finally, there is woe to the entire family when Sam is bored and lonely for one long night. Boland has an essential message, captured in both both story and illustrations of this Easy-to-Read: Kids and dogs belong together, especially when it's a fun-loving canine like Sam. An appealing tale. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8037-1530-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
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