Stern and Sims (George, 1999) join forces again for another easy reader in beginning-chapter format about an average boy named George and his older siblings. In this book the focus is on his irrepressible but appealing dog, Diggety. In the first story, the three kids administer a multiple-choice test to Diggety to determine his intelligence. The directions and answer choices are cleverly integrated into the text, which might be a useful read-aloud for children facing their first standardized testing. (And the story might be comforting to some, as “Diggety does not test well.”) The second story has a sledding theme, and the third has the siblings baking dog biscuits for Diggety’s birthday, with a recipe included for biscuits that can be eaten by both canines and humans. Teachers will like the integration of the multiple-choice test format and the procedural format of baking (along with the recipe) as examples of everyday reasons why we need writing in our lives. Kids will enjoy the illustrations of Diggety by Sims, also the illustrator of the perpetually popular Polk Street School series. Diggety is a charming, rangy dog (perhaps part poodle and part golden retriever) with fluffy tan fur and a big white spot around one eye. Diggety never does dig any holes, and there’s an unnamed, shy gray cat in the background, so Diggety and George seem destined for more adventures, even though they aren’t as charismatic as the characters in the beloved Henry and Mudge books. A serviceable addition to the easy-reader shelves. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-531-30295-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some...
With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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