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DOGS IN SPACE

Name: DOGS IN SPACE
Author: Vix Southgate
ISBN: 978-1-61067-824-7

by Vix Southgate ; illustrated by Iris Deppe ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2019

Quibbles aside, a space achievement well worth commemorating, with a less tragic outcome than Laika’s mission.

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Two canine cosmonauts make history.

Not to be confused with Nancy Coffelt’s 1993 storytime staple of the same name, this look back to the space race’s early years follows the careers of Soviet “space dogs” Belka and Strelka—the first living creatures to survive a journey into orbit. With considerable embroidery, Southgate describes in some detail how the two strays were enticed off the Moscow streets, carefully tested and trained for their 1960 flight, monitored through multiple orbits, then brought back to Earth to become world celebrities. Along with giving the dogs anthropomorphic smiles, Deppe adds fanciful details, such as bubble helmets for both, and makes no effort to depict the Sputnik 5 spacecraft accurately. Still, the flat, bright images of blastoff and the use of headlines and poster type add plenty of visual drama, and as they take their star turns the two space travelers positively glow with doggy personality throughout. The fact that Belka and Strelka were actually accompanied by a large menagerie of rodents and other creatures is relegated to a comment in one of the two closing timelines, where the fates of the “more than 50 dogs” launched into space before Belka and Strelka also go unmentioned.

Quibbles aside, a space achievement well worth commemorating, with a less tragic outcome than Laika’s mission. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: March 1, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-61067-824-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Kane Miller

Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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RALPH TELLS A STORY

by Abby Hanlon & illustrated by Abby Hanlon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2012

An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some...

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With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.

Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.

An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012

ISBN: 978-0761461807

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing

Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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by Avery Monsen ; illustrated by Abby Hanlon

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by Abby Hanlon ; illustrated by Abby Hanlon

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DORY DORY BLACK SHEEP
by Abby Hanlon ; illustrated by Abby Hanlon

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MUD PUDDLE

by Robert Munsch & illustrated by Dušan Petričić ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2012

Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...

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The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.

Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.

Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)