A tale with an adorable, relatable central character, a hint of mystery, and a wholesome message.
A puppy explores New York City, makes new friends, discovers a secret, and experiences a little magic in author Bender and illustrator Willows’ (Flying High, 2nd Ed., 2018, etc.) latest children’s book.
Little Lindie Lou, a spirited brown pup with huge paws and floppy ears, has, in previous series installments, experienced early life in Missouri, found a new home in Seattle, and visited a farm in Iowa. As this lively, travel-themed chapter book series continues, Lindie Lou jets into New York with her loving owners, Kate and Bryan, to stay with their friends at a posh apartment house overlooking Central Park. Lindie Lou and the hosts’ puppy are allowed to explore the idealized city alone because they have tracking collars, and Bender infuses the plot with benign suspense as Lindie Lou searches for a legendary apple tree that, their host says, gave New York it nickname of “The Big Apple.” The pup’s ability to read comes in handy as she tracks down the tree; so does her surprise ability to speak with a mysterious woman (whose eyes, strangely, are the same bright green as Lindie’s) and an elderly man named Kris, who explains the legendary tree’s secret and makes a significant appearance in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The sunny, character-building revelation may disappoint children hoping for magic—and may strike adults as exceedingly aspirational—but Kris and the green-eyed woman retain an air of mystery. Bender’s text, in which occasional words are enlarged, colored, or reshaped for emphasis, will attract young eyes, and Willows again charms with watercolor-soft digital illustrations that combine realism and a cartoonish style. The humans are diverse; Bryan and Kate are white, their friends are people of color, and the few other human characters have varying skin tones. As in previous books, Bender describes various landmarks; here, they include One World Trade Center, the Oculus transportation hub, the Statue of Liberty, and others. Post-story features include a Lindie Lou–related song, New York City “Fun Facts,” a calendar of events, and a “Quick Quiz” for reading comprehension.
A tale with an adorable, relatable central character, a hint of mystery, and a wholesome message.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-943493-27-2
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Pina Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Themes of freedom and responsibility twine between the lines of this short but heavy novel from the author of Because of Winn-Dixie (2000). Three months after his mother's death, Rob and his father are living in a small-town Florida motel, each nursing sharp, private pain. On the same day Rob has two astonishing encounters: first, he stumbles upon a caged tiger in the woods behind the motel; then he meets Sistine, a new classmate responding to her parents' breakup with ready fists and a big chip on her shoulder. About to burst with his secret, Rob confides in Sistine, who instantly declares that the tiger must be freed. As Rob quickly develops a yen for Sistine's company that gives her plenty of emotional leverage, and the keys to the cage almost literally drop into his hands, credible plotting plainly takes a back seat to character delineation here. And both struggle for visibility beneath a wagonload of symbol and metaphor: the real tiger (and the inevitable recitation of Blake's poem); the cage; Rob's dream of Sistine riding away on the beast's back; a mysterious skin condition on Rob's legs that develops after his mother's death; a series of wooden figurines that he whittles; a larger-than-life African-American housekeeper at the motel who dispenses wisdom with nearly every utterance; and the climax itself, which is signaled from the start. It's all so freighted with layers of significance that, like Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue (2000), Anne Mazer's Oxboy (1995), or, further back, Julia Cunningham's Dorp Dead (1965), it becomes more an exercise in analysis than a living, breathing story. Still, the tiger, "burning bright" with magnificent, feral presence, does make an arresting central image. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-0911-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
BOOK TO SCREEN
Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-87175-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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