This second installment about Oahu-dwelling Calvin builds on the engaging story line first introduced in the chapter-book series’s debut title, Calvin Coconut, Trouble Magnet (2008). Annoyed by the teasing doled out by their 16-year-old houseguest Stella, Calvin borrows Zippy, a neighborhood cat, and places it on her pillow, which causes a nasty allergy attack. Afterward, Calvin is unexpectedly consumed by guilt and he soon hatches a scheme to make it up to her with a snazzy but pricey birthday gift. With the help of his friends, Calvin searches the island high and low for ways to make money (while avoiding bully Tito), and the inevitable hijinks ensue. While somewhat formulaic, this slice-of-life–styled look at Calvin’s working-class family includes the experiences of having an absentee father, a busy-but-more-than-capable mom and siblings, complete with realistic strife, all of which add some depth. Rogers’s simple black-and-white illustrations are a fine embellishment. Light in tone, rich with cultural details and populated by likable characters, this slim volume will appeal to many a young reader. (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-73702-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2009
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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