A young field mouse grows and changes in a less-than-satisfying story about family. Spring asks her GranDora if she can have a family heirloom, a purple ribbon. She gets an explanation that heirlooms connect them to family members who have left and a list of names of those who have moved on or were eaten by a variety of animals. A comment like this would seem to be a foreshadowing of the dangers ahead. Now older, Spring, who will soon have mice of her own, is now wearing the purple ribbon as she collects seeds. A storm carries her away from GranDora’s house and she must deliver her babies in an abandoned car. Each chapter from this point shares a short story of how Spring and her four young mice live in the car, yet each chapter has little connection to the next. The mice do have a short run-in with a cat and a short separation from each other that causes their mother to go for GranDora. At the end, the mice basically walk their way back to GranDora’s home. Moranville’s title and theme and Alter’s soft pencil pastels raise hopes for a heartwarming family tale. Without a satisfying climax, the last chapter falls entirely flat. Little to pull readers along. (Fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-8050-6659-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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