Introduced originally in a 1996 picture book, then a made-for-TV movie, space-station-dwelling preteen Zenon Kar kicks off her chapter-book series with a slangy girl-meets-robodog tale. Live pets aren’t allowed aboard Space Station #9, but the new, improved mechanical Tobo dog is better than a real one; it can fly, spout jokes, and even do homework. Zenon’s friends all rush out and get one, but her frackle-pinching father won’t spring for anything pricier than the dopey, inarticulate Bobo model. What a scorch. Zenon is truly flared up, until her teacher awards everyone, except her, a failing mark for letting their dogs do their homework. When all of the Tobos develop tuton shorts in their flystroms and attack their owners, Bobo doesn’t look so bad—but where has he gone? The characters are as abbreviated as the plot, but Bollen adds comical cartoon illustrations to every page of Zenon’s brisk narrative. A glossary helps readers who’ve been put into a Martian mist by her argot, and by the end she and her metal mutt are reunited. No rocket fuel required for this lighter-than-air vehicle. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-679-89249-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
PLB 0-688-13166-2 King Midas And The Golden Touch ($16.00; PLB $15.63; Apr.; 32 pp.; 0-688-13165-4; PLB 0-688-13166-2): The familiar tale of King Midas gets the golden touch in the hands of Craft and Craft (Cupid and Psyche, 1996). The author takes her inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling, capturing the essence of the tale with the use of pithy dialogue and colorful description. Enchanting in their own right, the illustrations summon the Middle Ages as a setting, and incorporate colors so lavish that when they are lost to the uniform gold spurred by King Midas’s touch, the point of the story is further burnished. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13165-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Lunge-Larsen and Preus debut with this story of a flower that blooms for the first time to commemorate the uncommon courage of a girl who saves her people from illness. The girl, an Ojibwe of the northern woodlands, knows she must journey to the next village to get the healing herb, mash-ki- ki, for her people, who have all fallen ill. After lining her moccasins with rabbit fur, she braves a raging snowstorm and crosses a dark frozen lake to reach the village. Then, rather than wait for morning, she sets out for home while the villagers sleep. When she loses her moccasins in the deep snow, her bare feet are cut by icy shards, and bleed with every step until she reaches her home. The next spring beautiful lady slippers bloom from the place where her moccasins were lost, and from every spot her injured feet touched. Drawing on Ojibwe sources, the authors of this fluid retelling have peppered the tale with native words and have used traditional elements, e.g., giving voice to the forces of nature. The accompanying watercolors, with flowing lines, jewel tones, and decorative motifs, give stately credence to the story’s iconic aspects. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-90512-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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