Addressed at least as much to adults as children, this folktale-style story pairs two abandoned toys with conflicting, but not incompatible, natures. Staid Rubbaduck—depicted as an antique ducky with a sailor cap and a serious mien—invites new arrival Ruby Roo, an outgrown rag doll, to stay in his cozy patchwork house for a while. When she proceeds to eat him out of house and home, he sighs, and sends her out to trade his best coat for garden seeds. Instead, she runs into Mischievous Monkey and comes home with a Magic Dancing Stick. Annoyed, Rubbaduck tries again with his best hat and then his best slippers, with similar results. Before the conflict can turn ugly, however, King Lion offers a bag of gold to anyone who can make the Queen laugh. Problems solved. The plot may not mean much to younger viewers, but they will enjoy poring over Lucas’s simply drawn setting: a land of lost toys built from stray playing cards, chessmen, tin mechanicals, Erector Set pieces and similar bric-a-brac. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-59078-356-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 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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