White has adapted material from her series of chapter books (written under the pen name of Nicholas Edwards) about a homeless dog named Santa Paws. The dog has an uncanny ability to rescue people in need, and he finally finds a family who takes him in after he rescues another family from a Christmas Eve fire in their home. Long-winded descriptions of the dog’s sad and lonely life along with his many good deeds form the plot, but the compilation of anecdotes from the series leads to a disjointed structure that doesn’t hang together logically or in the layout of text with illustrations. The succession of multiple rescues all in one Christmas season borders on the ridiculous, and the strung-together plot leaves holes big enough to drive a sleigh through. Logic must be completely suspended when Santa Paws limps into church with burned paws on Christmas morning—into the Catholic church where a rabbi is conducting an ecumenical service for the whole town. Blake’s excellent watercolor illustrations include an appealing cover with the dog popping out of a Christmas package, but his polished paintings can’t pull off a Santa Paws–style rescue. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-439-32438-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
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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