Entertaining but not purr-fect.
A cat spinoff leads to more crime-fighting adventure in this Dog Squad (2021) sequel.
Just as the canine cast of the live-action television series Dog Squad (which formed the basis for the first book) breaks for hiatus and its star, Fred, heads back to Jenny Yen’s animal training ranch, ratings for the show dip. The network’s solution is Cat Crew, a crossover spinoff featuring some of Jenny’s rescued cats. Delivering tension and driving the plot are next-door neighbor and billionaire Kitty Bitteridge; her chauffeur, Dimitri (a former cat trainer in exile from his Russian homeland); and their performing Abyssinians, who become Cat Crew’s rivals with their own show, Feline Force Five. Not only are Kitty and Dimitri using cruel methods to train the Abyssinians, but they have kidnapped one of the cats-in-training. Once again, short, high-energy chapters full of action, animal dialogue, and animated illustrations recount fast-paced heroics. This time there’s teamwork—and plenty more puns—as Fred joins forces with the kidnapped cat’s feline family, ranch animal friends, and Jenny’s niece Abby’s continuing pet psychic abilities helping to expose Kitty and save her animal performers. The dialogue occasionally relies on negative tropes, as with Russian villain Dimitri and a former barn cat whose speech evokes Southern stereotypes.
Entertaining but not purr-fect. (Animal fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48087-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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