More proof that Wimpy Kid–style hijinks are just as droll in translation.
Øvreås follows up his Batchelder Award–winning Brown (2019), originally published in Norway, with a similarly poker-faced middle volume.
Hearing a standoffish new girl snippily claim that her mom is famous in America, Jack dons his homemade superhero costume and as “Black” makes a like bid for glory by pilfering the mayor’s prize chicken—with the intent of returning it publicly and basking in the acclaim. But when he goes back to the shed where he’d stashed the purloined pullet, all he finds are feathers. Time to enlist his friends Rusty (“Brown”) and Lou (“Blue”) for detective work and a rescue! The spare narrative leaves much to pick up between the lines, and for readers who don’t quickly twig to the fact that Jack’s not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, Torseter supplies hair-fine line drawings on nearly every page of a round-headed lad skulking about looking generally befuddled or guilty. In the end Jack does bring the hen back to her owner but, unsurprisingly, gets neither credit nor a picture in the local press. No matter: A store owner’s comment that fame is less important than money leads to an instant readjustment of priorities. In the unfilled line drawings, the cast presents as White; Jack’s indulgent mother uses a wheelchair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
More proof that Wimpy Kid–style hijinks are just as droll in translation. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781592702756
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake.
Promising myth-adventures aplenty, this kickoff episode introduces young Zeus, “a very special, yet clueless godboy.”
After 10-year-old Zeus is plucked from his childhood cave in Crete by armed “Cronies” of the Titan king, Cronus, he is rescued by harpies. He then finds himself in a Grecian temple where he acquires a lightning bolt with the general personality of a puppy and receives hints of his destiny from an Oracle with fogged eyeglasses. Recaptured and about to be eaten by Cronus, Zeus hurls the bolt down the Titan’s throat—causing the king to choke and then, thanks to an alert Crony’s Heimlich maneuver, to barf up several previously eaten Olympians. Spooning in numerous ingredients from the origin myth’s traditional versions, the veteran authors whip up a smooth confection, spiced with both gross bits and contemporary idiom (“ ‘Eew!’ a voice shrieked. ‘This is disgusting!’ ”) and well larded with full-page illustrations (not seen). One thorough washing later, off marches the now-cocky lad with new allies Poseidon and Hera, to rescue more Olympians in the next episode.
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5787-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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