Allard resurfaces after 17 years with a surreal tale of a chicken who dreams of becoming a high-fashion model but ends up taking what she can get. The other hens mock her pretensions, but when a fairy godmother offers to grant her wishes, Starlight LaPoule (original name: Ethel Fae Klucksworth) immediately lays a flashy convertible and roars off toward the runways of Milan. Unfortunately, she’s dissed there too and worse yet, upon her return to the States, a change in fairy-godmother personnel leaves her able to lay only appliances and other bric-a-brac. As the odd non-conclusion has it, Starlight, more irritated than daunted, proceeds to open up an ongoing flea market. Booth illustrates this postmodern alternative to Oh, the Places You’ll Go! with his usual array of comically scowling characters and rapidly sketched clutter. Consider it a poke at the flock of more optimistic tales of barnyard dreams, like Robert Kinerk’s Clorinda (2003), illustrated by Steven Kellogg, or Mary Jane and Herm Auch’s Beauty and the Beaks (2007). (Picture book. 6-8, adult)
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-374-37187-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
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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