Hits the gross-out sweet spot.
Readers with a soft spot for gross-out humor will find plenty to keep them gagging in Rex’s latest novel (Fangbone! Third-Grade Barbarian, 2012) for the early-middle-grade set.
Told through a combination of vignettes about Ricky’s icky escapades and such “Time-Saving Tips” as how to turn toothpaste into a tasty sandwich spread, this novel is a fast-paced, enjoyable read—but not for the faint of heart. From earwax to booger bubbles to mango, french-fry and fish-stick soup, the ick-factor bar is set high. It is raised even higher by illustrations that capture Ricky in all his gross glory. And with the exception of one chapter in which Ricky stands up to the town bully, gross is what this book is all about. While there is nothing particularly new or clever about this series opener, Rex fans eager for another dose of his trademark brand of humor will walk away satisfied. Certainly there are young girls who might get a kick out of the image of Ricky turning in homework on a piece of cheese or crafting a bicycle helmet out of a watermelon, but the antics of the predominantly male cast of characters will most likely appeal to young boys. The format of the novel, with its numerous illustrations and short chapters, also makes it a good bet for reluctant readers.
Hits the gross-out sweet spot. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-307-93167-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings.
A loquacious, lovable dog narrates the challenges of shelter life as he longs for a home.
Friendly three-legged Chance is the perfect guide to Dogtown, a shelter that houses both warmblooded and robot dogs. In fact, she’s “Management’s lucky charm,” roaming freely without being confined to a cage and leaving kibble for her mouse friend. Life is pretty good. But she still yearns for reunification with her family and, like many of the living pups, harbors suspicion of her robot counterparts, who are convenient and more easily adoptable but lacking in personality. When Metal Head, an oddly engineered e-dog, bonds with a child during a shelter reading program, Chance’s assumptions about heartless robot dogs are upended. As Chance connects with Metal Head, the two make a brief escape into the wider world, and Chance learns a familiar lesson: Everyone longs for a place to belong. Memories of Chance’s happy home loom large in her mind: Easy days with the Bessers, a sweet Black family, were disrupted by a neglectful dogsitter, the accident that cost Chance her leg, and Chance’s flight in search of safety. Chance’s chatty narrative style includes flashbacks, vignettes about fellow shelter pets, and thoughtful observations, for example, about the “boohoos,” or sad new arrivals. The story offers many moments of laughter and reflection, all greatly enhanced by West’s utterly charming grayscale illustrations of irresistible pooches.
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781250811608
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
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