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
There are more than 150 kinds of ducks, divided into two types: diving ducks and dabbling ducks. Gibbons briefly describes and illustrates both kinds, then presents the lifecycle of the familiar mallard dabbling duck in greater detail. She explains the different ways of migration, the return to build nests, lay and incubate eggs, and hatch ducklings, which then grow to repeat the cycle. The last section discusses domesticated ducks and makes a case for protecting those in the wild. Gibbons provides detailed watercolors on every page with handsome portraits of many different ducks, labeled for identification of parts as well as types. The main text is placed on white space at the bottom, leaving room for the lovely drawings. While each picture does not fill the page, Gibbons's trademark pieces break through the borders and extend the scenes. One quibble: the duckling emerging from the egg appears to be fluffy and dry, while in reality a newly emerged duckling is slippery wet. A final page concludes with additional interesting facts about ducks. Young readers will enjoy this appealing introduction to the familiar waterfowl by the prolific science writer who has provided so many outstanding science titles. (Nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8234-1567-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
A knee-slapper for recent early-reader grads who like their metafiction on the droll side.
Two cutesy-poo picture-book characters seek (and find) a way to toughen up their images.
Chafing at the roles forced on them in previous bestsellers with titles like Tiger and Bear Are Cute and Tiger and Bear Are Wholesome, Knuckle Tiggerelli and Potty Polarberg seek help to escape their upcoming outing, Tiger and Bear Go to Happy World. Appeals to their author (who turns out to be not the TV celebrity named on their title pages, but a ghost writer named Gregory) and illustrator get only hostile responses. Knuckle and Potty (respectively, small pink and green outline figures with oversized eyes and lashes) arm themselves with erasers and mount a direct assault on Happy World’s trees and flowers. Alas, these turn out to be less defenseless than their sappy smiles imply. Proimos cranks up the general air of chaos by mixing narrative text with loosely drawn framed and unframed cartoon scenes and trots in other stars of page and screen. Such lights as Winkie the Pug and the rhyme-spouting Chicken in the Beret lend aid and advice.
A knee-slapper for recent early-reader grads who like their metafiction on the droll side. (Graphic fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: May 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9155-7
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
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