One of the prolific Martin's more surreal episodes, first published in 1946, earns a reissue with dandy new illustrations and packaging. After Chicken Chuck eats a blue seed, a like-colored plume sprouts from his forehead, prompting him to lord it over the other barnyard residents. Enter a challenge, in the form of a circus poster depicting a horse with two blue feathers. Chuck and the animals rush off to see, meeting instead a monkey with a feather allergy who plucks out Chuck's pride and joy, then invites everyone to carry off the circus's entire supply of blue feathers. Salerno paints large figures, using sweeping, emphatic brushstrokes and bright, clear colors—his palette enhanced by curls of shimmering silver on Chuck's seed and feather that are presaged on the cover by a huge, blinding wash of holographic flash. In the end Chuck and the animals, all of whom have names like Necky the Goose and Butterfat Cow, parade about with feathers tied to their heads. The story's absurdities may draw some chuckles, but children are likely to be far more dazzled by the illustrations; it's a spectacular debut for Salerno. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-890817-31-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2000
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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