This sequel to Monkeys and Dog Days (2008) develops the family relationships among big brother Pete, little brother Max and their parents. This time, instead of grappling with the responsibilities of pet ownership, the simian family confronts sibling rivalry provoked by Pete’s interest in the solar system and Max’s attendant feelings of inadequacy as he is excluded from Pete’s astronomical projects. “Pete sure knows a lot,” Max thinks to himself in chapter one, later lamenting, “why did everyone have to know everything before he did?” Parental intervention through a trip to an observatory allows the brothers to both gain new knowledge and resolve their differences. Banks excels at using a controlled vocabulary to tell her story in language accessible to new readers, without ever sounding stilted or restricted, and Bogaki’s illustrations, rendered in bright watercolors with soft, visual texture, provide pictorial cues for readers while also contributing to the storytelling. An added bonus of astronomical information seamlessly embedded into the text contributes to the great success of this beginning reader. (Early reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-374-35028-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
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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