A classic legend gets a more or less good-humored makeover with a happier ending. Plagued by mice—“ ‘What shall we do?’ the townsfolk cried. / ‘In spite of every thing we’ve tried, / They’ve covered all the countryside / And still they keep on coming! / Their manners are extremely rude; / They don’t show any gratitude; / And yet they gobble up our food / And clog up all the plumbing!’ ”—the residents of “Mousy Town” happily pay an oddly dressed stranger to wave his magic fan and lure the rodents away with deliciously cheesy odors. But then all the cats follow, and all the dogs, and finally all the children. What to do? Suddenly the Mouse Man has a sly look. Giving the tale a 19th-century setting, Forman combines soft lines and warm colors reminiscent of Jim LaMarche, with figures and details as finely drawn as Wendy Anderson Halperin’s, then casts a golden glow over every scene that suggests the benign resolution to come. And, perhaps harking back to her renowned A House Is a House for Me (1978), Hoberman provides one, in a child’s suggestion that a vagrant trickster might become a good neighbor, if only he had a house. A rollicking, readable remake from one of the best versifiers in the business, and a strong debut for the illustrator. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-201715-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Gulliver/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2002
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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