Readers may barely notice the plot here for the glorious chaos in the pictures. Fed up at last when the Scallywags, a big and wildly rambunctious family of wolves, tumble in to ruin a group photo, a sedate community of animals gives them the cold shoulder. Happily, the ostracism turns out to be only temporary. At least mildly repentant, the Scallywags characteristically overdo efforts to clean up their act, and turn into obnoxious prigs—whereupon everyone is happy to see them revert to form as soon as the full moon appears. Melling keeps every figure busy in his populous rustic settings, rewarding close examination with hilarious glimpses of hyperactive wolves learning new, sometimes gross, uses for a toothbrush, clothing, cologne and other tokens of gentility in between scenes filled with flying food and bodies. Closing with a helter-skelter picnic and a messy gathering for another try at a photo, this quick and crazy woodland episode will have children howling for repeats. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-7641-5991-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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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