Clever wordplay, wonderful character banter, and stinky humor make this outing another giant success.
Hamster princess Harriet faces a big problem in this “Jack and the Beanstalk” retelling.
Harriet and her loyal quail steed, Mumfrey, have been cliff-diving—a magical ability gained in Of Mice and Magic (2016)—when they’re approached by a cloaked chipmunk peddling magic beans. Mumfrey loses patience during the pitch and eats one. The resulting flatulence prompts Harriet to camp outside the castle. A massive beanstalk towers above them by morning—Mumfrey had a nighttime bathroom break, and it appears that quail fertilizer’s potent. Harriet and Mumfrey follow harp music up the beanstalk and to a castle, where “harpster” Strings (front half hamster, back half harp, amazing biceps from strumming herself) has been enslaved by the giant. She wants freedom to start a metal band; no one will be surprised when Harriet volunteers as drummer. Harriet must save Strings, a nail-biting rescue that includes stealing—by way of chewing—one of the giant’s shoelaces, rank with years of giant toe sweat and funk. The cliff-diving comes in handy in the final confrontation with the giant, but the story’s real resolution comes from threatening to sue the chipmunk for the damage his unmarked bean caused. This is vintage Vernon, sly text punctuated by clean, comic-style illustrations that manage to make even goose (“Honk?”) and quail ("Qwerk qwerk qwerk, werk-qwerk, qwark") dialogue funny.
Clever wordplay, wonderful character banter, and stinky humor make this outing another giant success. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 7-12)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18652-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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