A moving and memorable tale of love, forgiveness, and compassion among beings both human and canine.
A Canadian family’s emotional life is enriched by the affections of a shaggy white dog.
Nine-year-old Kix and his younger sister, Emilia, are delighted by the unexpected appearance of a Great Pyrenees who quickly adopts them as his family. While the children unreservedly embrace their new pet, naming him Sam, their parents are more cautious, as it emerges that he belongs to the violent son of the curmudgeonly old couple across the road. Sam’s former master is in a mental institution following the failure of his farm, and the rightful ownership of the skittish dog, desperately in need of both physical and emotional nourishment, becomes a source of bitter contention between and within the two families. A dramatic, heart-stopping denouement finally brings an end to the tension. The elegant simplicity of both the prose and the lively pen-and-ink illustrations allows the full power of the feelings to shine through. Van de Vendel (The Dog that Nino Didn’t Have, 2015, etc.) based this novel, translated from the Dutch, on an actual experience he had while visiting relatives in Canada. While the characters’ race is never specified, all appear from the illustrations to be white.
A moving and memorable tale of love, forgiveness, and compassion among beings both human and canine. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5484-1
Page Count: 113
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
File under “laugh riot.”
A rogue spell-check program’s bid to transform all life-forms into that eminently useful office item, the paper clip, touches off a fresh round of lunar lunacy.
Predicated on the entirely reasonable premise that eliminating all spelling and grammar errors everywhere would logically lead to the necessity of exterminating carbon-based life in the universe, this third series entry combines high stakes with daffy banter and daring exploits. CheckMate—a chipper, jumped-up editing program—has invented the Transmogratron, a giant laser that will fulfill its ultimate goals in both the cyber world and “meatspace.” Facing challenges as random as prankster lunar unicorns and a disarmingly motherly Motherboard, scowling First Cat joins a motley crew of diversely carbon- and silicon-based allies, led by the pearlescent Queen of the Moon. They’re in a race to the finish—diverted occasionally by, for instance, a relentlessly punny comic-book interlude featuring a pair of literal and figurative Pool Sharks. They ultimately triumph thanks to teamwork and moxie. Following a celebratory party and toasts to “new friends…and steadfast comrades” (and, of course, “MEOW”), the story’s energetic, brightly colored panels close with a reveal of the next volume. (“I always hate it when comics end by announcing a sequel. SO CRINGE!” declares an authorial stand-in.) It can’t come too soon.
File under “laugh riot.” (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780063315280
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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