The author and illustrator of Wolf Watch (1997) here team up again to let the tigress speak: “I am the tigress. / I walk alone. / No pack / no pride / no mate / helps me survive.” Winters’s tigress describes how she hunts to feed her cubs, washes them with her warm, wet tongue, carries them to safety to avoid a lurking leopard, and teaches them to swim, hide, and hunt, until at last they can go off to live on their own. The author presents a good deal of detail about the lifecycle, without ever giving specific information about the species of lion or geographic region where it is found. The title ends as it begins, as the tigress asserts: “I am the tigress. / I walk alone.” Regan’s huge black and gold tigress has strength and dignity, while the inquisitive cubs are cuddly and cute. Double-paged spreads allow for the sweep and majesty of the setting. But the illustrator is less successful at integrating the tiger into a realistic landscape. While the author describes the tigress hunting at the edge of the jungle at sunset “where peacocks roost,” the illustrator presents a decorative peacock with feathers trailing to the ground. In any setting but a zoo, that bird would be dinner! The author does not provide sources, so young researchers will need to look elsewhere for school assignments, which certainly could be inspired by this beginning. This is an attractive nature read-aloud for the picture-book set. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-82323-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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