Sloat continues exploring the theme of her previous work, Hark! The Aardvark Angels Sing: A Story of Christmas Mail (2001) with this rhyming story focusing on imaginary postage stamps from cities and countries around the world. The premise is that after Christmas, Santa calls the North Wind to blow all the children’s letters away, and “pieces of Christmas come swirling down” like snow. The tiny torn bits of letters drift down on double-page spreads that include a large image of a postage stamp, most featuring animals, on one page and four lines of rhyming text on the facing page. The rhymes sometimes focus on the animals and sometimes on the country, but the intent is often unclear and the rhyme schemes are variable and often don’t scan well. Some of the stamps are misleading (the Russian stamp says “Russian Christmas” in English, for example), and the rhyme for the US is downright confusing. It shows three possums hanging from their tales in front of the Capitol with the rhyme stating, “On Pennsylvania Avenue, / Possums pray for me and you— / ‘Please bless this world, and bless this town, / And those whose lives are upside down.’ ” Sloat’s imaginary postage stamps are attractive images, but the title, concept, and connection with Santa never coalesce into a real story. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-8050-6355-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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