Readers may trip over some unfilled gaps in this tale of a single parent who—evidently—quietly changes his “No Pets!” stance. Knowing that their father has always denied their most earnest entreaties for a pet, two children desperately try to hide the friendly dragon that appears one day in the back yard. As it happens, they needn’t have bothered, for even though the new green “coat stand” eats his hat, the flaming “lamp” produces melting heat and the “reading chair” dumps its occupants, “Daddy never noticed a thing!” Though she does add plenty of amusing detail to her canted, topsy-turvy cartoon scenes, Huliska-Beith misses the chance to connect the dots here; showing not even a change of expression, Dad still comes off as totally oblivious—at least, until he casually sits down, post-bedtime, for a game of cards with the house’s huge new resident. From Steven Kellogg’s Mysterious Tadpole (1977) to M.P. Robertson’s The Egg (2001), tales featuring the sudden arrival of oversized pets generally show better-knit internal logic. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-8037-2706-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
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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