It’s wonderful to be a mouse in 1903, thinks Wee, who lives with his wife and two mousekins in a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, where they publish Mouse News for the mouse neighborhood: Wee writes the stories, Mama runs the printing press, and the youngsters sell the papers. Wee is intrigued by the flying machines the Wright brothers build, and when they pack the “Flyer” to go to Kitty Hawk, Wee declares he will go, too, for the greatest story ever. On the famous day, Wee slips into Orville’s pocket and has the adventure of his life. An author’s note verifies the existence of a mouse in the brothers’ camp as Orville’s notes mention a mouse that outwitted his cornbread-baited trap. Watercolor and pastel illustrations humorously provide mouse points of view. For a fun take-off on aviation history, pair this imaginative blend of historical fact and animal fiction with Pamela Duncan Edwards and Henry Cole’s The Wright Brothers (2003), where mice are comic observers of the event. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-8050-7172-5
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2004
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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