A thoroughly enjoyable book for young readers featuring deft storytelling, humor, and heart.
Criminal activity at the local dog pound and a dream about the queen of England figure into this funny, charming tale about a 7-year-old boy and his flying dachshund.
Young Tom’s pet “sausage dog,” Max, a rescue from the local pound, has an unusual, secret gift. When he whirls his tail, he can fly, and whenever Tom arrives home from school, Max greets him by zooming like a helicopter into his arms. But in this follow-up to Max the Flying Sausage Dog: A Tail from London (2014), a dog-pound manager and an odd-looking policeman confiscate Max, claiming that his original owner has been found. That night, Tom dreams that he asks the queen of England—a fellow dog lover—for help, and she threatens to jail the pound manager in the Tower of London if he doesn’t release Max. The authors aim a sly bit of humor at adults when Tom tells the queen that his mum always says “patience is a virtue,” and the queen responds, “That’s what I’ve been telling my son, Charles, for years.” Indeed, a peppery wit informs this gentle story throughout. The strange policeman, for instance, is “tall and thin with an Adam’s apple that stood out like a pickled onion,” and Robins’ offbeat illustrations are a spot-on match to the descriptions, with comic details to engage the eye. Tom and his mother team up to rescue Max and confront the bad guys—“Mum can be pretty frightening when she gets a certain voice on,” Tom says—and chaos ensues as whirligig Max leads the chase to rescue other pooches, too. The book includes a helpful list of words and phrases used in the story that are common in England: dachshund is pronounced “dash-hound”; “Telly” is short for “television”; “Lovely jubbly” is “money”; and in cockney rhyming slang, “my boots,” becomes “Me daisy roots.” The book ends with an endearing coda: a photo of the real-life inspiration for the Max character (“Could he fly? / That will remain a secret forever”).
A thoroughly enjoyable book for young readers featuring deft storytelling, humor, and heart.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9910364-8-6
Page Count: 50
Publisher: Words In The Works LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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