A lighthearted series opener.
Two fox siblings, refugees from the Big City, find a friendlier (if occasionally dangerous) new home.
“No real animals were harmed in the making of this book,” Shireen writes, and though that’s true in the literal sense, there’s plenty of damage to fictive ones. With their parents long gone (but maybe someday coming back?) sweet little Ted and his grumpy, protective big sister, Nancy, are eking out existence as dumpster divers—until Ted mistakes the tail of vicious kitty Princess Buttons for a hot dog and bites it off. Thinking it might be wise to lie low for a bit, the two scarper off to the happy forest community of Grimwood, where helmet-wearing squirrels compete in wild games of “treebonk,” antlered mayor Titus Wildhorns has friendly greetings and a gift basket for them, and Ted is soon enlisted by the local community theater to replace a rat who has just had his head bitten off by Pamela the eagle (“A bird has to eat”). Along with genuine “spot art” made up of fingerprints, coffee stains, and spatters of ink, the author decorates this sylvan idyll with charming and hilarious loosely drawn vignettes and occasional commentary by a pillbug named Eric sporting a straw boater. Princess Buttons does eventually show up, bent on vengeance, setting the stage for a dramatic climax. The action, humor, and ample illustrations give this much reader appeal.
A lighthearted series opener. (Animal fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781524882259
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 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
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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