While Jelly’s tales go on a bit too long, her skills and the story’s action-packed ending, however implausible, reward...
Angelica, nicknamed Jelly, uses her storytelling abilities to avert a crisis at the animal-rescue center where her parents serve on the board.
Jelly has known Mwezi, a lioness rescued from Tanzania, all her life, and she amazes her friend Joon with her ability to get Mwezi’s attention. When a new boy named Leopold shows up looking to write a story for his school newspaper and asks Jelly if she’s a lion trainer, Jelly can’t resist the temptation to become just that for the day. Her friend Joon believes her too, and as she uses her vast knowledge of lions for support, Jelly’s “stories” become more and more elaborate. Leopold grows skeptical as Jelly gets “swept away”; “Joon is a better audience because she believes all my stories,” Jelly tells her readers. But when Mwezi goes missing, Joon’s insistence that Jelly is handy and knows how to call Mwezi earns Jelly a spot on the search team. When they find her, Jelly’s handiness and her storytelling both help lead Mwezi back to her enclosure. Similarly imaginative chapter-book readers will connect with Jelly, and there’s no question the lion facts are cool. Full- and half-page illustrations throughout the book suggest that Jelly is mixed-race, Joon is Asian, and Leopold and other characters are white.
While Jelly’s tales go on a bit too long, her skills and the story’s action-packed ending, however implausible, reward readers who stay tuned. (Fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1547-6
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts.
What terrors lurk within your mouth? Jasper Rabbit knows.
“You have stumbled your way into the unknown.” The young bunny introduced in Reynolds and Brown’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, Creepy Carrots (2012), takes up Rod Serling’s mantle, and the fit is perfect. Mimicking an episode of The Twilight Zone, the book follows Charlie Marmot, an average kid with a penchant for the strange and unusual. He’s pleased when his tonsils become infected; maybe once they’re out he can take them to school for show and tell! That’s when bizarre things start to happen: Noises in the night. Slimy trails on his bedroom floor. And when Charlie goes in for his surgery, he’s told that the tonsils have disappeared from his throat; clearly something sinister is afoot. Those not yet ready for Goosebumps levels of horror will find this a welcome starter pack. Reynolds has perfected the tension he employed in his Creepy Tales! series, and partner in crime Brown imbues each illustration with both humor and a delicate undercurrent of dark foreshadowing. While the fleshy pink tonsils—the sole spot of color in this black-and-white world—aren’t outrageously gross, there’s something distinctly disgusting about them. And though the book stars cute, furry woodland creatures, the spooky surprise ending is 100% otherworldly—a marvelous moment of twisted logic.
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts. (Early chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781665961080
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Lively fun with animal friends.
Has Plum’s pep deserted him?
Several animals from the Athensville Zoo are on their way to visit an elementary school. Overconfident Itch the ningbing (an Australian marsupial), unaware that zookeeper Lizzie will be doing all the talking, looks forward to “lecturing eager young minds.” Plum, the usually chipper peacock, on the other hand, is anxious—maybe the schoolchildren won’t like him or he’ll get lost. So when they arrive at the school to find the students have been sent home due to a blizzard, Plum is relieved. The animals are left in a school gym for the night until three self-important class mice free them. Itch heads for the library to meet the learned turtle, but Plum reluctantly explores with his friends. When his anxiety peaks, they reassure him, and when the mice reject Meg, another peacock, as “borrrring” and uncool, they buoy her as well before everyone comes together to save Itch, who finds himself outside and stranded in a snowdrift. Unlike Leave It to Plum (2022), this is not a mystery, and the relationship focus shifts from Lizzie to the rodents, but the pace is brisk, and sequel seekers will be pleased to revisit familiar characters (if dismayed that Itch’s longing for knowledge leads to his downfall). In Phelan’s engaging grayscale pen-and-wash illustrations, Lizzie has short curly hair; text and art cue her as Latine.
Lively fun with animal friends. (how to draw Plum) (Chapter book. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-307920-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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