Using the same sort of wild collage and typography that revved up her Henny-Penny (2000), Wattenberg recasts The Boy Who Cried Wolf as a “Dog-U-Drama,” featuring an all-canine cast (except for the sheep) photographed in a variety of human headgear and strewn across decidedly unnatural-looking greensward. Responding to a newspaper ad (“Can’t Sleep? Count Sheep!”), Bix soon finds respite from the boredom: “Watching fluffballs 24–7 is not the cat’s pajamas. It’s PARTY time. Catch this: WOOOOOOF!’” Led by Hunky-Dory, the other sheepdogs quickly tire of the sport, leaving Bix on his own when a wolf really does show up. So what does Bix do? “FLEAS LOUISE! What’s a lone dog to do when he has a hunch he’s lunch? Get UP and R U N !” “What would YOU do?” the author queries readers, after furnishing a last view of the wolf popping whole sheep like popcorn. No explicit moral, but there’s a lesson here somewhere. (Fable. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-439-21675-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
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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