Cheery creatures in a riotous array of forms and colors cavort across the pages of Stower’s genial solo debut. All of the monsters dwelling below Glittering Palace love to cut the rug—even blue-skinned Rufus, though because both of his feet are, literally, left ones, he generally winds up taking a tumble. When the monsters pair off for a ballroom-dancing competition, however, Rufus finds a soulmate in Maddie, a purple-haired boggart in a long dress that conceals, as it turns out, a pair of right feet. Were these two creatures made for each other, or what? Consider this a natural companion for Keith Graves’s Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance (1999), though, unlike the partially decomposed shuffler in that episode, Rufus, Maddie, and the finned, tentacled, multi-eyed supporting cast here radiate bonhomie, and won’t soon be slipping into anyone’s nightmares. Big pictures, short text: a terpsichorean triumph that will send even younger readers into a twirl. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58234-884-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
A sweet iteration of the “Big Bad Wolf Mellows Out” theme. Here, an old wolf does some soul searching and then learns to like vegetable stew after a half-frozen lamb appears on his doorstep, falls asleep in his arms, then wakes to give him a kiss. “I can’t eat a lamb who needs me! I might get heartburn!” he concludes. Clad in striped leggings and a sleeveless pullover decorated with bands of evergreens, the wolf comes across as anything but dangerous, and the lamb looks like a human child in a fleecy overcoat. No dreams are likely to be disturbed by this book, but hardened members of the Oshkosh set might prefer the more credible predators and sense of threat in John Rocco’s Wolf! Wolf! (March 2007) or Delphine Perrot’s Big Bad Wolf and Me (2006). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-58925-067-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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