A small, shy-looking chameleon is transformed into a giant dinosaur each night in this imagination-stretching import. Every day a different child takes the class pet home, with the assignment to describe or draw a picture of what it does. Mackintosh’s pictures, drawn in a quick, childlike style on lined paper, tell different and far more exciting tales than the chatty comments. On Tuesday, for instance, when Hilary takes Rex home to her apartment and reports that he fell out the window, the accompanying scene shows a massive, toothy, fire-breathing monster climbing a skyscraper. Likewise, when he unexpectedly goes for a swim, his huge foot alone fills the pool; another time he’s dressed as Malibu Barbie, but the bikini top is barely visible on his scaly chest, and he—or rather, just his towering, tyrannosaur-like muzzle—is last seen sharing a bed with the delighted young narrator, who gets him for the entire weekend. Young readers, dinophiles and (if there are any) otherwise, will be eager to answer the closing question: “What would you do if Rex came to visit you?” (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59643-186-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
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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