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
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
IN THE NEWS
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names...
A lad finds a big red dragon in his basement and wisely seeks expert advice about its care and feeding in this epistolary episode.
Young Alexander’s missives (there are no cellphones, nor parents, in sight) are mostly paraphrased rather than shown, but each response comes as a small note folded into a pocket that’s been printed and shaped like an envelope: “Douse it in water right away!” writes panic-stricken fire chief H.Y. Drant; find it a large house or castle, advises B. East of World Animal Welfare; “fatten it up,” suggests Angus Teak the butcher (“Look forward to [eating, scratched out] meeting your dragon”) with sinister relish. Boy and dragon have wonderful times together, but the ultimate realization that dragons really don’t make good pets leads the narrator to follow the written advice of best friend Hillary (“the wisest person I knew”) and set it free. The later arrival of a slightly burned picture postcard in the “post” reassures him that the dragon won’t be forgetting to keep in touch. The human figures in Yarlett’s cartoon illustrations are either white or have their heads cut off at the page top. With the exception of the pasted-on postcard from the dragon at the end, all of the correspondence is removable and thereby losable.
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names add some appeal. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-818-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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