In the end, it’s hard not to love a main character who wears a one-man-band outfit to the library, in case he finds a very...
It’s difficult to describe the Claude books without using the word surreal. The new book in the series may be the sweetest surrealist children’s book ever published.
Claude’s best friend is a sock. Sir Bobblysock is very nattily dressed, and Smith gets a lot of mileage out of one joke, putting the sock in ever more absurd outfits. Sir Bobblysock wears pajamas, then earmuffs, and there’s a reference to a “glitzy leotard” he puts on before aerobics class. Most of the humor in the book comes from one basic premise: This would never, ever happen in real life. Sometimes the joke works. It’s very funny when a girl suggests Claude use a tea tray as a sled, and readers learn that “He always kept one in his beret—with a full tea set just in case there was a tea-based emergency.” It’s less funny to read about Sir Bobblysock’s bunion and his session in a heated foot spa. Instead of laughing, kids may say, “What’s a bunion?” or, “That would never, ever happen in real life.” Much too often, the book is perplexing instead of amusing. But there’s no denying that Claude is sweet and charming, and Sir Bobblysock looks fantastic in his checkered nightcap.
In the end, it’s hard not to love a main character who wears a one-man-band outfit to the library, in case he finds a very exciting book. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-56145-805-9
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A buggy blast; readers will be happy with the clear signs that that the twins’ career as experimental subjects is far from...
A spray of strange fluid gives 8-year-old twins Josh and Danny both six extra legs and a quick trip down the bathtub drain in this icky but informative series opener.
Shortly after chasing their dog Piddle into witchy next-door neighbor Petty Potts’ hidden science lab, bug-loving Josh and his violently phobic brother Danny find themselves transformed into spiders. Their stereotypically spider-fearing older sister immediately sends them hurtling through the household plumbing down to the storm drains, where friendly rats Scratch and Sniff are already waiting to ferry them back outside, explaining that the effect is caused by Potts’ S.W.I.T.C.H. (“Serum Which Instigates Total Cellular Hijack”). Happily, there’s an antidote—which Petty Potts herself applies after saving the twins from a hungry toad with a quick stomp of her boot. Sparkes layers her lickety-split tale between a fact file about the twins and a helpful closing list of multimedia nonfiction resources for fans of all things creepy-crawly. Simultaneously publishing sequels include Fly Frenzy, Grasshopper Glitch, Ant Attack, Crane Fly Crash and Beetle Blast.
A buggy blast; readers will be happy with the clear signs that that the twins’ career as experimental subjects is far from over. (line drawings, glossary) (Fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0710-7
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Darby Creek
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will suck up this quick and gooey adventure like the “fly-spit smoothie” that it is.
The plot thickens with complications, plus various sorts of goo and slime, in the second episode of this boys-as-bugs series.
When their mother’s prized topiary is vandalized, 8-year-old twins Danny and Josh accept the offer of Petty Potts, the old-but-not-as-dotty-as-she-seems scientist next door, to transform them temporarily into houseflies in order to track down the perpetrator. Marveling at their suddenly different world (“I can see my own butt!” exclaims Danny. “Without turning my head around!”), the lads buzz off to the house of the suspected classmate culprit. There they have close and gross encounters with both a parental nose and a hungry spider—plus a reunion with friendly rats Scratch and Sniff, introduced in the first episode (Spider Stampede, 2013). In the end, just deserts are served out all around, and hints of a larger scheme involving Potts and her chemical cocktails point to sequels. Along with spritzing occasional drops of natural history into the story itself—“To a fly, pee is soup”—Sparkes appends a glossary of insect parts and other vocabulary words. For value added, all series episodes also feature a set list of print and Web resources for larval insectophiles. Sequels, publishing simultaneously, are Grasshopper Glitch, Ant Attack, Crane Fly Crash and Beetle Blast.
Readers will suck up this quick and gooey adventure like the “fly-spit smoothie” that it is. (line drawings) (Fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0711-4
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Darby Creek
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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