The Princess Eilonwy is one of the many attractive characters growing up through the previous titles in the continuing chronicle of Prydain: The Book of Three. The Black Cauldron. Although it's her plight that instigates the action here, it is still Taran's story — the impatient, ambitious Assistant Pig Keeper of Caer Dallben, who has been on his way to becoming quite a man in these stories. The Princess has reached an age where the wizard Dallben decides despite her protests that her hoyden ways must be polished to royal refinement. She is dispatched to the Isle of Mona to be trained under the direction of Queen Teleria and the protection of King Rhuddlum. It comes as an awful blow to Taran that their plan is to prepare Eilonwy to become the bride of their son, Prince Rhun, a foolish stripling of good intentions, hereditary powers and small capacity. Rhun's safety becomes Taran's charge which considerably complicates Eilonwy's rescue. No sooner had she been installed at Mona than she was kidnapped by her wicked relative, the enchantress Achen, who needed certain magical powers and properties belonging to Eilonwy, who was not fully aware of them. The struggles between the forces of good and evil continue at the terrific pace established in the first books. Character and dialogue is handled humorously and dextrously, which sets this classic-in-the-making apart from other folklore-based fantasies. Any discussion of whether or not this book can stand completely by itself without the others seems quite beside the point. We think it might. The point is that in terms of bookstore inventories and library collections it shouldn't have to, and where the ultimate readers stumble into the series is, after all, subject to control. It is clear from the author's note that there is more to come that will resolve some of the situations set in motion here. This includes a magnificent cat force fed to horse proportions and prone to housepet gambolings and an embittered self-made giant trapped underground. And, as before, the compelling mystery of Taran's destiny and Prydain's fate.
Pub Date: April 11, 1966
ISBN: 0805080503
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Holt Rinehart & Winston
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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