A pallid Easter tale posits a Bunny whose flu-triggered blues have got him so down he can’t perform, so the local animals, led by Petey the pup, pitch in to help. Four short chapters tell the story, with Old Jack providing the necessary exposition to both Petey and readers: Just a “plain old rabbit most of the year...[r]ight before Easter he gets his superpowers and creates spring magic.” Because Petey’s beloved Belle and “[a]lmost all children love the Easter Bunny” (stated with a bland assumption of cultural hegemony), the critters decide to come to the rescue. To say this tale has loose threads is a wild understatement. What is the magic that gives the Easter Bunny his “superpowers” every spring? And why can’t those superpowers overcome the flu? Isn’t it perilous to rest the whole holiday on the shoulders of one evidently frail rabbit? The goodwill manifest by the helping animals banishes the Bunny’s blues, thank goodness, so Easter will happen after all. What a surprise. Buy an extra copy of The Bunny Who Found Easter instead. (Early reader. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2162-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
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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