Birdsong lulls the people on the isle of Luzon to sleep each night, because the birds practice their music in an abandoned house atop Mount Pinatubo and the evening breeze carries the sweet noise down. Haribon the eagle is too large to fit inside the house, so he lingers outside to enjoy the music. Until a lizard arrives. “I am Tuko the gecko, and I’ve come to sing,” the lizard says. But Tuko’s song is far from pleasant, and his very presence makes the birds unable to open their mouths. So Haribon sets to work. His first effort—offering Tuko a goodbye present—fails, but then the eagle comes up with a brilliant idea, comprised of sticky tree sap sculpted into the shape of beetles. If the plan succeeds, perhaps Tuko will go back where he belongs! Climo’s text makes the most of Tuko’s overbearing obnoxiousness, his braying TUKOs rendered in an upper-case shout that invites audience participation. Mora’s softly colored realistic watercolors nicely complement this laugh-worthy story of innovation and trickery. (glossary, author’s note) (Picture book/folklore. 5-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-6559-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008
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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