With vibrant, large-scale watercolors on rough-textured paper, Grejniec (From Anne to Zach, 1996, etc.) adds new zip to bouncy stanzas first published in 1958 with the now-veteran Kuskin’s own illustrations. Having worked frantically to finish the ark before the rain arrives, Noah and family invite aboard “every single kind of beast / from moose to goose / from most to least.” But after long, boring days at sea, the animals grow understandably fretful. The bright color scheme changes with every turn of the page, and so does the presentation of the text; deftly incorporated into each scene, lines run in long ripples from top to bottom or break into short bits to be tucked in wherever they fit—but never at the expense of legibility or smooth, natural reading. The on-board turmoil climaxes in a double fold-out: “when the fighting and crying were awful and fearful and all the small animals seemed to be tearful, / when Noah was helpless and so was his crew, / At Precisely THAT MOMENT / the sun broke through!” And that, Kuskin concludes, “is the end of the poem. / They all got up and they all went home.” Despite the plethora of picture-story Noahs, this should make a big splash. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-83095-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
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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