Readers riding waves of amusement will howl for more.
The latest in this early reader series finds the lupine misanthrope planning a trip.
Wolf boards a bus in the middle of the night so as not to encounter anyone. Unfortunately, the bus driver proposes a singalong, and a young boy in the back eagerly chimes in. Once at the hotel, Wolf ignores the irritatingly cheery receptionist and endures an agonizingly long elevator ride with a chipper girl before finding his room—and discovering that someone’s already in his bed! What to do? Wolf decides to nap by the pool until a bossy youngster disturbs his repose, urging him to take a swim. Wolf’s exhausted. Maybe a hike through the mountains will revive him. Uh-oh. Wolf spots the jolly hiker, an acquaintance who somehow always seems to cross paths with him. Figuring out a way to distract the hiker, Wolf sneaks past him…and just keeps going, rolling suitcase in tow. He avoids the bus filled with singing passengers and walks all the way home, where a truly glorious staycation is about to unfold. The ever-apprehensive Wolf sports red-accented tennis shoes and his usual vexed expression; his protruding eyeballs register his stress. The color-washed settings are sometimes night-dim but sometimes sunny. Just as Wolf—mostly—maintains his sangfroid, the wryly funny text never loses its understated calm, with its quick, brief sentences describing our hero’s travails as he skirts disaster. Human characters are diverse.
Readers riding waves of amusement will howl for more. (Early reader. 6-9)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9780823457793
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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