Heroism, humor, and penguin facts mix nicely in this pleasing Antarctic-to-Brooklyn tale.
A penguin and a fish hitch a ride with Antarctic researchers and travel north for Coney Island’s famous opening day parade in this picture book.
Noodles, a penguin, and his friend Albie, an orange fish, have enjoyed two previous adventures. As this story begins, they overhear two Antarctic penguin scientists, Jon and Ken, looking forward to their journey home to Brooklyn, where they’ll be back in time for Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade and aquatic costume contest. It sounds like so much fun that Albie and Noodles ask to come along, and because Capt. Sonja and their parents agree, off they go—the fish in his own tank. They learn about other kinds of penguins and, in the Falklands, they’re joined by two of them: Henry, a king penguin, and feisty Rocko, a rockhopper. During a storm, the penguins don headlamps to help guide an oil tanker away from rocks, preventing an environmental disaster. On Coney Island, everyone enjoys the parade, especially when the two animals win Best Costume. Bennett (Noodles’ and Albie’s Birthday Surprise, 2016, etc.) delights and instructs with this third amusing escapade. The penguin species’ personalities come through; the oil tanker rescue is satisfying; and a final Q&A page provides more background. (A quibble: Experts don’t recommend sweaters for penguins harmed in oil spills.) Debut illustrator Monte provides appealing, softly shaded images that depict expressive animals and a diverse human crew.
Heroism, humor, and penguin facts mix nicely in this pleasing Antarctic-to-Brooklyn tale.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Penguin Place Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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