There’s nothing cats love more than someone who doesn’t love them. That’s just one of the truisms that show up in this predictable pet tale. There’s also the father-as-fool, the manipulative mom and the clever kids who collude in her efforts to keep a series of rescued cats. Said cats are found on a rainy day, rescued from a parking lot and picked up on the way home from school, among other things, and while there’s a brief mention of posting notices to find the original owner for one poor puss, in general their adoptions don’t seem to include much consideration of where they came from. Instead the focus is on the father’s increasingly absurd objections, played for laughs as silly tantrums. Parkins’s cartoonish exaggerations are generally appealing, but his depiction of the father in shorts and striped shirts enhances his depiction as a childish figure. Laborious rhymes and excessive repetition make this difficult to read aloud, and the revelation at the end that Dad prefers dogs won’t surprise savvy listeners. Not a keeper. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9799746-5-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flashlight Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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