Two quarrelsome but close mice suffer narrow squeaks in this tongue-in-cheek series opener. Looking for a new home as safe and well-stocked as the deli where they were born, sibs Molly and Jake find an odd “store” with playground equipment in the “parking lot.” While plump Jake goes off to look for another entrance, Molly wiggles through a crack in the wall, and soon finds herself being squired around a dark third-grade classroom by genial Gino the gerbil, ghost of a recently deceased class pet. Meanwhile, what with all-too-close encounters with Big Gray the cat (“I always get my mouse”) and a barn owl named Hooter, Jake’s having a much harder time of it. Asch switches scenes in alternate chapters, ending Jake’s with cliffhangers and lacing Molly’s with happy wonder as she meets other (living) class mascots and learns how to use another kind of mouse to surf the Internet. Ultimately, Jake and Big Gray enter the room at nearly the same time, setting the stage for a hilariously different game of cat-and-mouse. With Kanzler’s charming sketches providing a mouse’s-eye view, events hurtle along to a doubtless temporary standoff that sees Big Gray hauled outside by the teacher, while Jake and Molly, in a comfy hideout behind the class’s walls, peer out into a once-limited world considerably expanded by new thoughts and experiences. Young readers will be eager to see what develops in future episodes. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-84653-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
The author of Babe, the Gallant Pig (1985) offers another winner with this tale of a bright pig and her canny young keeper “training” a spoiled princess. When Princess Penelope demands a pig for her eighth birthday, her over-indulgent father requires every pig keeper in the country to assemble with a likely porcine candidate. The princess settles on Lollipop, who turns out to be the sole possession of penniless orphan Johnny Skinner. As only Johnny can get Lollipop to sit, roll over, or poop outdoors, soon lad and pig are comfortably ensconced together in a royal stall—at least until the pig can be persuaded to respond to the Princess’s commands. It’s only the beginning of a meteoric rise for Johnny, and for Lollipop too, as the two conspire to teach the princess civilized manners, and end up great favorites of the entire royal family. Barton (Rattletrap Car, p. 504, etc.) captures Penelope’s fuming, bratty character perfectly in a generous array of line drawings, and gives Lollipop an expression of affectionate amusement that will win over readers as effortlessly as it wins over the princess and her parents. Move over, Wilbur. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-1269-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
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