These salty sea dogs put the bite back in buccaneering.
Two bored pups take to the high seas in an imaginative and homophone-friendly caper.
Tank, a Great Dane of endless spunk and enthusiasm, and Haggis, a small Scottish terrier with an uncanny resemblance to Wilford Brimley, decide that the best way to spend a sunny morning is to pretend that they’re the “rrruff-est scallywags” to sail the seven seas. With Tank (aka “Bootleg Bonny”) providing the passion and Haggis (“Captain Scurvy”) the brains, they encounter everything from sneaky squeaky sea serpents and buried treasure to the perils of improper slipknots. Fortunately, when certain death threatens the daring duo, deliverance appears in the least likely of places. In this latest addition to Scholastic’s early chapter Branches imprint, Young spends a fair amount of time engaging her heroes in enticing banter and funny misunderstandings involving puns and homophones. It’s especially gratifying to see that the big, tough, strong dog character is a female. Burks’ plentiful, full-color art is consistently engaging, incorporating dialogue bubbles as well as regular typeset prose. Kids dipping a toe into the waters of early chapter books will find themselves challenged by the text while simultaneously enticed by the alluring art.
These salty sea dogs put the bite back in buccaneering. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-81887-2
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
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