Following on the tail of Mr. Maxwell’s Mouse (2004), this father-son team spins another cat-and-mouse gambit set in Edwardian times. When Mrs. Eleanor Marlowe (a quite refined cat) returns home from her job at the Purrington Street Library one day, her busybody neighbor invites her to tea and tuna tarts but complains that her invitation is never returned. Mrs. Marlowe’s protest that she’s a dreadful housekeeper is just an excuse as her apartment is fastidiously clean and neat—due to the large family of mice that lives with her. When Lieutenant Manx and Sergeant Baxter from the Department of Catland Security show up at her door to investigate a neighbor’s complaint that she’s a mouse-keeper, Mrs. Marlowe has to think quickly to cover up any telltale tracks and foil the law. The ending, though a bit abrupt with Mrs. Marlowe reading a story to the mice, leaves the door open for more tales. The captivating, vintage-looking artwork, rendered in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter, assimilates unusual perspectives to add to the intrigue with details that enhance the narrative puns with visual ones. Not quite as charmingly macabre as their first book but entertaining nonetheless. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-55453-022-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
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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