Love conquers fear in a charming story about a boy and a fearsome dog. “I hate Mad Dog McGraw,” cries the little boy about his next-door neighbor’s pet. Mad Dog barks and chases our hero back home. To avoid going near the dog, the boy tries a number of strategies. He learns how to walk on stilts. That works until a stilt is caught in a crack and he falls right in the dog’s path. He decides to sail over him with an open umbrella. That works, too, until the wind stops and he falls into his yard. In desperation, he decides to get a cat to scare Mad Dog. Since he doesn’t have a cat, he tames Bait, a stray, by offering him milk. But instead of frightening the dog, Bait purrs and wins his love. The offer of a dog biscuit produces the same result with Mad Dog, and they all live happily ever after. Monks’s (The Cat Barked?,1999) paper montage illustrations with acrylic paint and colored crayons add to Uhlberg’s (Flying Over Brooklyn, not reviewed) humorous text. The bright cartoon-like figures with paperdoll-styled clothing are jaunty and fun. Mad Dog’s teeth all stick out of even his closed, smiling mouth. The boy’s five hairs stick straight up from his head. His wide O-shaped eyes with a little dot for pupils graphically display his fear. The cat’s long black-and-white striped tail curving high over her back is the picture of allure and sophistication. A delightful story, but children shouldn’t take its lesson too seriously when dealing with strange “mad dogs.” (Picture book. 3-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-399-23308-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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