Golden-brown puppy George had his own existential difficulties finding his voice in Feiffer’s last offering (Bark, George!, 1999). This time, a boy named Bobby has an existential emergency of his own when he declares (repeatedly and loudly), “I’m not Bobby!” It’s the old deny-thy-parent-and-refuse-thy-name ruse, not for reasons of a familial feud, but just to get away from a demanding mother’s agenda. Bobby’s mother is always yelling for him, shown in three-inch-tall letters hand-scrawled across the page in thick, black lines. She yells his name, issues vague threats, and enlists the help of other relatives to chase him, but Bobby is busy transforming himself (through his considerable imagination) into commanding animals, monsters, and vehicles, with a running first-person text at the bottom of each page. Bobby’s powerful emotions fairly burst off the page in Feiffer’s edgy watercolors, especially when he turns into a whirling wild thing of a monster. (“A monster comes all right. And it tears you to pieces.”) Eventually, after a fanciful journey in his spaceship, Bobby gets hungry and transforms himself back into a lion with “a Bobby face,” who returns home, where he expects to find dinner and the restoration of his TV privileges by his parents. (“Or I’ll eat them.”) Some adults will object to Bobby’s emotional excesses, and others will object to the mother’s screams and threats, but plenty of youngsters who are wild things at heart will eat this up. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-0906-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Michael di Capua/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
IN THE NEWS
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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