A delightful, entertaining romp with lots of surprises.
Meet Dakota Crumb, treasure hunter extraordinaire.
Never mind that she is a mouse; her small size is no hindrance to her bravery. Dakota lives deep under a great city’s art museum. At night she scurries about the museum with a mouse-sized sack, searching for treasures that she can carry away. She is quick witted and keen eyed and able to escape by a whisker from any danger. Though she snags a painting and a statue that are small enough to toss into her sack, her goal this evening is to find the Purple Jewel of Egypt with the help of a treasure map. Of course she finds that treasure, and it tastes good too. The clock keeps ticking toward morning as the tale’s pace slows and quickens with Dakota’s need to creep past dangers, swoop a treasure into her sack, pause to read her map, or even freeze in fear. Readers will need sharp eyes to identify the actual treasures, but the effort is rewarded by admission through a tiny door under the big museum to the Mousehole Museum—curated by the amazing, clever Miss Crumb. Murphy’s gray- and purple-hued nighttime cartoons perfectly track the action from Dakota’s close-to-the-ground perspective, depicting her as an intelligent, confident, and independent female. A closing activity invites readers to embark on their own treasure hunts to find other items to be seen in the museum on a second read.
A delightful, entertaining romp with lots of surprises. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0394-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
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