Best for young dog lovers.
If dogs could talk, World War II veteran Judy might have described her adventures the same way Calkhoven does.
Judy was an English pointer who was born in Shanghai in 1936. During peacetime, she was adopted by the crew of a British gunboat, the Gnat, and later transferred to the HMS Grasshopper. This latter boat, with civilian refugees onboard, was attacked by the Japanese and sunk in February 1942. The survivors, including Judy, took refuge on an island but were captured by the Japanese. Judy and her POW caretakers spent the rest of the war in prison camps where brutal treatment, little food, and a high mortality rate were the norm. Judy, while staying away from and defying Japanese guards, surreptitiously gathered food for the starving men and also helped morale by performing tricks she was taught by her human friend Frank Williams. After the war, Frank and Judy returned to England, but later they worked in Britain’s African colonies, where (she reports) she was euthanized at the age of 14. Judy’s fictionalized story is a remarkable tale of loyalty and the bond that can develop between dogs and people, describing but not focusing on the brutality of war. The young readers’ edition of Robert Weintraub’s No Better Friend (2016), for a slightly older audience, presents Judy’s story with much more detail, but this effort is just right for emergent readers.
Best for young dog lovers. (Historical fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18523-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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