by David Biedrzycki & illustrated by David Biedrzycki ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2005
His bright yellow trench coat lighting up the tenebrous mean streets of Motham City, crack gumshoe Ace Lacewing swoops into action when Hive Rise Honey Company’s Queenie Bee goes missing. Could the culprit be Smooch the Assassin Bug? Unsavory honey magnate Al the Drone? With help from police sergeant Zito the Mosquito and considerably more from blue-winged bombshell Xerces Blue, Ace proceeds to find out—though not before a visit to the deadly Beetle Zoo and some close encounters with praying mantis thugs nearly put Lacewing’s lights out for good. Biedrzycki depicts his chitinous crew in high-gloss digital glam, strews puns and sight gags with abandon and finally sends his hardboiled hero off for a well-earned, post-dénouement platter of aphids à la mode. Fans of Doug Cushman’s Mystery at the Club Sandwich (2004) and similar capers will happily sink their mandibles into this buggy brouhaha. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-57091-569-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
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by Kwame Alexander & illustrated by Tim Bowers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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by Kwame Alexander & Randy Preston ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet
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by Kwame Alexander & Deanna Nikaido ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet
by April Jones Prince & illustrated by François Roca ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2005
Strong rhythms and occasional full or partial rhymes give this account of P.T. Barnum’s 1884 elephant parade across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge an incantatory tone. Catching a whiff of public concern about the new bridge’s sturdiness, Barnum seizes the moment: “’I will stage an event / that will calm every fear, erase every worry, / about that remarkable bridge. / My display will amuse, inform / and astound some. / Or else my name isn’t Barnum!’” Using a rich palette of glowing golds and browns, Roca imbues the pachyderms with a calm solidity, sending them ambling past equally solid-looking buildings and over a truly monumental bridge—which soars over a striped Big Top tent in the final scene. A stately rendition of the episode, less exuberant, but also less fictionalized, than Phil Bildner’s Twenty-One Elephants (2004), illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (author’s note, resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-44887-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2005
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by April Jones Prince ; illustrated by Christine Davenier
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by April Jones Prince ; illustrated by Bob Kolar
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