Madsen drops several lines but grafts a new ending to the irrepressibly daffy title track from his 1999 recording. A popsicle pink hen that quacks and talks, but absolutely refuses to cackle, puts old Mr. Mackle Hackle’s shorts in such a twist that he first hauls her off to a fortune teller, then reads bad chicken jokes (“What do you call a crazy chicken?” “A cuckoo cluck!”) until she keels over in a faint. Ultimately, he gets more than he bargained for when the hen hatches a big clutch, and one chick clues him in: “Hey, old man, don’t blow your stackle—/ Every chick knows how to cackle!” Shepherd portrays the harried Mackle Hackle as a dapper gent with a long, looped handlebar, and leaves him dazed at the end, surrounded by chicks of various wild hues delivering a wild “cackle”-phony. This recast version doesn’t quite capture the rhythmic drive of the original lyrics, but it still makes a hand-clapping, knee-slapping read-aloud. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 6, 2005
ISBN: 0-316-73452-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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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