A discordant, one-note story that can’t seem to find its funny bone.
A pet dog named Balthazar, unaware that a tasty bone sits underneath the pillow it rests upon, dreams of bones and wakes with a mission: “Gonna getcha bone.”
The dog looks outdoors and indoors, wreaking havoc inside the elegant home. Despite reminders to itself to “keep calm,” the dog panics, leaving a mess in its wake and even flooding the house after frantically searching in the bathroom. Weary from the frenzied search, Balthazar manages to make it across the now-destroyed interior of the home back to the bed to happily reunite with the bone that was there all along. The way in which the humans will react to the extended destruction is left to the imaginations of readers. The cutesy way in which Balthazar speaks (“Bone? must be home-home” and “dear Bone, it really you!”) becomes tiresome, and exceedingly busy and cluttered spreads may occasionally make it difficult for readers to follow the action, though they do capture Balthazar’s frenzy. Some of the renderings of Balthazar are jarring, even alarming. In one illustration, the dog struggles to stay afloat in the flooding bathroom; its right eye is distorted and protruding, its left eye brown and bruised-looking, its facial features twisted, and its teeth bared on only the right side of its face (Batman’s Two-Face has nothing on Balthazar).
A discordant, one-note story that can’t seem to find its funny bone. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64567-061-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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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