For reading aloud and reading alone, another satisfying sequel.
Dory Fantasmagory loses her first tooth.
Hanlon continues the combination of real-life 6-year-old problems and fantastic adventure that has characterized the three previous titles in this series for chapter-book readers. Over the course of seven chapters, this superimaginative first-grader deals with two quite believable issues: she gets in trouble for lying about a “BUNCHY” coat she doesn’t want to wear and, with the help of the tooth fairy, successfully vanquishes the imaginary Mrs. Gobble Gracker, who makes her behave badly. It doesn’t help that her older siblings (who invented the witch in the first book) tell her that the tooth fairy brings money only to children who are good. Dory has a very hard time being good. Told mostly in dialogue-filled prose, the story is also carried out in black-and-white illustrations, which show this freckle-faced white child and her real family, friends, neighbors, and classmates (including some people of color) as well as her imaginary horned and furry friend Mary, scary Mrs. Gobble Gracker with her long fingernails, and a wonderfully ample elderly grocery shopper she’s convinced is the tooth fairy. The family dynamics are entirely believable, and both adult and child readers can appreciate the humor.
For reading aloud and reading alone, another satisfying sequel. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3046-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
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)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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