Having inched his way into his grandfather’s spotlight with a Madeline board book and other tie-ins, Marciano tries out a full-dress solo performance here—and makes the grade nicely. Looking and sounding just like the classic episodes, this all-original outing takes Madeline and her schoolmates on a rhymed trip to sunny Rome where, after visiting the Sistine Chapel and other familiar sights, she and Genevieve hare off after a young thief who snatches Miss Clavel’s camera. After a brisk chase they reclaim the camera, but find themselves (briefly) under arrest and also saddled with an entire old houseful of stray cats. Though an unexplained general costume change partway through breaks the visual continuity, Marciano sketches children, tourists and their surroundings with that old, loose, familiar vim—in (as further homage) alternate sets of full-color scenes and pages in yellow and black. Like the newer Amelia Bedelias, this doesn’t exactly take the perennial favorite in new directions, but it does seamlessly extend the series. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-670-06297-3
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008
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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