Agee (The Return of Freddy LeGrand, 1992, etc.) scores again with this utterly engaging tale of interplanetary friendship. Leaving behind Lulu, a small alien that looks like a cross between a duck and a shmoo, Dmitri returns to Earth after gathering moon rocks for two years to find that no one remembers him. His cargo has been rendered worthless by the exotic prizes brought back by other space explorers. He despondently throws his sack in the trash and wanders off to would-be anonymity. He doesn't see Lulu waddle out of his bag; she quickly becomes a huge public sensation. Ignoring the crowds, however, Lulu draws a bubbleheaded figure over and over, until Dmitri appears to see what all the fuss is about, and the two are happily reunited. Agee uses broad brushstrokes and heavy lines, but his figures, especially Lulu, are surprisingly expressive, and the story ends with a flourish as Dmitri and Lulu lead a parade beneath humongous effigy balloons. The last line of the book leads readers right back to its beginning, where they will discover just how Lulu arrived on this planet. A charmer. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-205074-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1996
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
A sweet iteration of the “Big Bad Wolf Mellows Out” theme. Here, an old wolf does some soul searching and then learns to like vegetable stew after a half-frozen lamb appears on his doorstep, falls asleep in his arms, then wakes to give him a kiss. “I can’t eat a lamb who needs me! I might get heartburn!” he concludes. Clad in striped leggings and a sleeveless pullover decorated with bands of evergreens, the wolf comes across as anything but dangerous, and the lamb looks like a human child in a fleecy overcoat. No dreams are likely to be disturbed by this book, but hardened members of the Oshkosh set might prefer the more credible predators and sense of threat in John Rocco’s Wolf! Wolf! (March 2007) or Delphine Perrot’s Big Bad Wolf and Me (2006). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-58925-067-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
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