THE FAR-FLUNG ADVENTURES OF HOMER THE HUMMER

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THE FAR-FLUNG ADVENTURES OF HOMER THE HUMMER

Name: THE FAR-FLUNG ADVENTURES OF HOMER THE HUMMER
Author: Cynthia Furlong Reynolds
ISBN: 1-58726-269-X

by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds & illustrated by Catherine McClung ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2005

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The title isn’t all that’s wordy in this new publisher’s debut offering, but Reynolds’s tale of a ruby-throated hummingbird’s journey from a Costa Rican rain forest to a favorite garden on the U.S.’s eastern seaboard will leave young readers wowed by the tiny bird’s endurance and toughness. Along the way, Homer faces dangers as diverse as a hungry frog, hundreds of miles of open water and a very cold night. (“That bird was in a deep sleep called torpor and he woke up,” a man explains after the seemingly dead hummingbird takes wing from his pocket.) He eventually hooks up with both an artist who keeps the feeder outside her window filled, and with his similarly migratory mate Ruby. Like Gay W. Holland’s art in April Pulley Sayre’s The Hungry Hummingbird (2001), McClung’s soft-lined paintings create verdant natural settings, while capturing the hummer’s jewel-like colors and zippy energy. Plenty of child appeal here, in topic and presentation both. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 1, 2005

ISBN: 1-58726-269-X

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Mitten Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

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DIARY OF A SPIDER

by Doreen Cronin & illustrated by Harry Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2005

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

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HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE STARRY NIGHT

From the Henry and Mudge series

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Sucie Stevenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

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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)