In this oddball solo debut, a migratory flock of doves gives a too-big, too-noisy jetliner hoping to be a fellow traveler a hostile reception. In Ford’s heavy-lined cartoon pictures the interloper’s smiling face changes to tearful dejection after disastrous encounters with a birdbath and a nestful of eggs prompt the doves to squawk “Go fly with your own kind!” Fortunately, the jet is willing to let bygones be bygones, and when a sudden cold snap grounds the feathered birds, the metal one returns to offer comfy window seats for the flight South. Having been shown “a new way to fly,” the doves “saw things differently than they had before.” As seen in comparison to the pigeons, the jet’s too small to let the size disparity reach its full absurd potential—for better examples, see Valeri Gorbachev’s Big Little Elephant (2005) or Mac Barnett’s Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem, illustrated by Adam Rex (2009)—and its motivations remain murky, but readers shouldn’t have much trouble figuring out what those aforesaid “things” might be. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 16, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4231-1997-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 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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