An Honor book in the publisher’s New Voices Award competition, this is a sweet, if somewhat sentimental, look at a boy trying to cope with his mother’s serious illness. The illness is never named, nor is the absent father ever mentioned. Raymond and his mother are fortunate to have close elderly neighbors in their city apartment who look after the boy while his mother has an extended hospital stay. The couple is sympathetic to Raymond’s wish to give his mother a special surprise gift when she returns home. When he decides to plant flower seeds, they provide the pots, and they take him for regular visits to see his mother. Although the flowers have bloomed and scattered before his mother can see them, Mom is delighted to see the birds that come to strip their seeds. In an upbeat, but not unrealistic ending, Raymond and his mother enjoy a walk in the park. Wang’s (When the Circus Came to Town, 2001, etc.) stylized illustrations, rendered in pencil and scanned into a computer, picture an Asian boy and his mother. Their coloration reflects the boy’s mood, full color when he’s planning his surprise, muted blues and white when he is worried. A story with bibliotherapeutic possibilities. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-58430-055-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 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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