Just the ticket for children transitioning to chapters.
Pug and Lady Miranda have a seafaring adventure…in a manner of speaking.
Lady Miranda, who lives at No. 10, The Crescent, has a birthday party to attend at the boating lake according to Wendy, the housekeeper. Lady Miranda decides that Pug will attend in a captain’s uniform; though Pug would rather stay home and eat jam tarts, he wants to please Lady Miranda. Running Footman Will and Running Footman Liam, dressed in their old-fashioned costumes, carry Lady Miranda and Capt. Pug to the lake in a sedan chair. Due to an enticing picnic basket that harbors the possibility of more jam tarts, Capt. Pug finds himself separated from Lady Miranda. He formulates a brilliant plan to reunite with her: become such a famous sea captain that she’ll hear about him and find him. But first he must overcome his fear of water! James’ ostentatiously English debut and series starter offers likable characters in sweet, devoted, and clueless Pug and his privileged young white mistress (no parents in evidence here); their silly, simple adventure is sure to please young Anglophiles (and pugophiles). French illustrator Ceulemans’ plentiful, Eloise-esque, two-color illustrations are expressive and endearing.
Just the ticket for children transitioning to chapters. (Fiction. 5-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68119-380-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
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