illustrated by Howard Knotts & by Eve Bunting ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 1979
A tenuous construct, barely a story, with none of the usual aids or lures for a beginning reader. The first-person narrator sets up the situation in disconnected offhand remarks about the family's beloved big red barn; sister Susie's pet goat, a rooster, a barn owl, and a nest of kangaroo rats (denizens of the barn); his new, resented stepmother and "the hayloft where I went when Mom died." Then, without warning, the barn burns down—and the question becomes whether its shiny aluminum replacement can actually take the old barn's place. The narrator resists; but, says wise Grandpa, "The new barn has to make its own place. It will if we give it a chance." That's a sidelong reference to stepmother Emma, seen in affectionate consort with Susie on the page before (and in the picture opposite); but the inference is both too fragile and too facile to make this diffuse mood-piece into a satisfactory story—even if it weren't an easy reader.
Pub Date: April 23, 1979
ISBN: 0152071458
Page Count: 31
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979
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illustrated by Howard Knotts & by Eve Bunting
BOOK REVIEW
illustrated by Howard Knotts & by Eve Bunting
by Josh Schneider & illustrated by Josh Schneider ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2011
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider
BOOK REVIEW
by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider
BOOK REVIEW
by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider
by Arnold Lobel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 1979
The glowing friendship of Frog and Toad continues, with Frog as the wiser, supportive partner easing Toad through his small frustrations and uncertainties. Frog plays the sympathetic sounding board while Toad convinces himself to clean house today and take it easy tomorrow instead of the other way round; he encourages Toad through a fourth and finally successful try at kite flying despite the robins' ridicule; he scares himself and Toad with a shivery ghost story that might or might not have happened to him; and, less admirably perhaps, he shrinks Toad's too-big birthday hat with water while leading his friend to believe that Toad's own big thoughts have enlarged his head. Once more, Lobel leaves the two with their friendship reaffirmed, this time after Toad misinterprets his friend's desire to be alone for a while. As in Frog and Toad All Year (1976) the relationship has settled into a comfortable, conflict-free pattern; but the complementary pair continues to delight and vulnerable Toad to invite sympathetic recognition.
Pub Date: Oct. 3, 1979
ISBN: 081243417X
Page Count: -
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1979
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illustrated by Arnold Lobel
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by Arnold Lobel
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by Arnold Lobel & illustrated by Anita Lobel
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