Golden retriever King can’t understand where his family has gone. Left with Uncle Marty, King finds himself in a place called the P-O-U-N-D. But he’s quickly adopted and renamed “Buddy” by a mom and her son, Connor. Still, Buddy/King is determined to find his old family, and it looks like he’s landed in his old neighborhood. Buddy is a detective dog who uses logic and facts to find solutions to mysteries. When Connor suddenly disappears, Buddy tries to find him. Has Connor been kidnapped? Butler tells the story from Buddy’s perspective, throwing in details to convince readers that it’s really Buddy talking. Every kind of food Buddy encounters, for example, is Buddy’s “favorite food!” Buddy identifies Connor not so much by sight as by smell and describes that smell to get clues from other animals. But if Buddy can’t get out of the house, how is he going to use his skills, and his nose, to find Connor? Tugeau’s full-page line drawings enliven a story that should captivate young readers. This first entry in a series is both sweet and suspenseful. (Mystery. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8075-0910-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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