Powerful pussycat perfection!
Who can save the city and meme his way into the hearts of all? Cat Ninja!
Metro City has no idea that its adorable yet deadly protector Cat Ninja is but a humble house cat by day. Leon’s cat, Claude, appears ordinary enough, but when Master Hamster threatens everyone’s bank accounts from his hamster-ball–headed super robot body, Claude becomes Cat Ninja, using the skills he learned as a kitten watching ninja movies with a kindly old lady—who became a ninja crime fighter when attacked. Yes, there are villains everywhere for Cat Ninja to fight, but Leon is having a rough time too. His parents are just beginning divorce proceedings; he and his sister, Marcie, hate having two houses and the way their parents separately vie for their attention. While the family drama plays out, Cat Ninja is busy keeping the city safe from the Raccoon Bros and Chat Noir, but is our kitty hero up to beating a supervillain menace who’s arming the city’s baddies? Cody’s hyperbolic superhero-movie narration and Mercado’s vibrant, dynamic panels hit the sweet spot, marrying humor and heroics. Leon, Marcie, and their mom all have beige skin; the kids’ dad presents White. A short comic featuring villain Fury Roach penned by Colleen AF Venable and a humorous quiz close what readers will hope is but the first outing for Cat Ninja.
Powerful pussycat perfection! (Graphic fantasy. 7-14)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5248-6094-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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