The third in the Zigzag Kids series, which features a culturally diverse, tight-knit cast and focuses on one character per installment, turns to would-be inventor Charlie. Charlie can’t wait to show off his new invention to his buddies in the after-school program. Unfortunately, the red sneakers with glued-on suction cups are about as successful at climbing walls as his Breathe-underwater Box was at supplying air. So far, his inventions aren't helping him to live up to his older brother’s stellar reputation with the teachers at Zigzag School. Compounding his woes, Mrs. Farelli picks him to organize the Come as a Character Day and dress as Peter Rabbit. It's a tough week for Charlie as he struggles with self-doubt and others’ expectations. As the day of the event approaches Charlie begins to feel the wonderful buzz signaling an idea for an invention. Could there be an opportunity in a huge load of detritus Jake the Sweeper's truck dumped in the playground by accident? Now he’s got a plan that, if successful, could help everyone and prove that junk is in the eye of the beholder. The cheerful drawings offer levity to the spare, straightforward prose laid out in one- or two-sentence paragraphs. The tension builds mildly, exploring the concept of individuality and the expanding pressures of growing up, demonstrating Giff's keen understanding of chapter-book readers. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-73887-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent.
Published in magazines, never seen since / Now resurrected for pleasure intense / Versified episodes numbering four / Featuring Marco, and Horton and more!
All of the entries in this follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories (2011) involve a certain amount of sharp dealing. Horton carries a Kwuggerbug through crocodile-infested waters and up a steep mountain because “a deal is a deal”—and then is cheated out of his promised share of delicious Beezlenuts. Officer Pat heads off escalating, imagined disasters on Mulberry Street by clubbing a pesky gnat. Marco (originally met on that same Mulberry Street) concocts a baroque excuse for being late to school. In the closer, a smooth-talking Grinch (not the green sort) sells a gullible Hoobub a piece of string. In a lively introduction, uber-fan Charles D. Cohen (The Seuss, The Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss, 2002) provides publishing histories, places characters and settings in Seussian context, and offers insights into, for instance, the origin of “Grinch.” Along with predictably engaging wordplay—“He climbed. He grew dizzy. His ankles grew numb. / But he climbed and he climbed and he clum and he clum”—each tale features bright, crisply reproduced renditions of its original illustrations. Except for “The Hoobub and the Grinch,” which has been jammed into a single spread, the verses and pictures are laid out in spacious, visually appealing ways.
Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-38298-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.
Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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