A sugar-sweet burst of sunshine for new readers.
Kitty rejuvenates an aging movie theater by converting it to a combination movie house and restaurant.
When Kitty Sweet Tooth—a purple cat who loves sweets and (fortunately) visiting the dentist—learns that Pop-Pop’s considering selling his movie theater, she begs him not to and pitches screenings with paired movies and sweets. He gives her one month as manager to try it out. To help with the culinary confections, Kitty recruits Dr. Battina (a pink bat—not a mad scientist, just misunderstood) and her collaborator, a green-skinned humanoid witch named Walter. After spiffing the theater up (with both hard work and magic), the team holds a showing each week, the food going wrong in a mild way (usually resulting in large quantities of sweets supersizing to flood the theater) and the heroes having to think quickly (and get extra mouths) to fix it. Though the storyline is repetitive and low-stakes, the vibrant, full-color palette and the silly dessert action (and parody puns for adults reading along—Planet of the Crepes, anyone?) result in stress-free escapism for sensitive readers. The art’s cartoony and clear, showing off a wide variety of cutely rounded animals, and it uses occasional breaks from panels for strategic (and charming) double-page spreads. After their trial month of successes, Pop-Pop decides to keep the theater; as a sequel hook, Kitty announces she’ll make a movie of her own. Instructions for DIY rock candy close the experience.
A sugar-sweet burst of sunshine for new readers. (Graphic fantasy. 5-10)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-19677-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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