Frank history, attention to factual detail, and vivid adventures make this a standout.
Magellan’s 16th-century circumnavigation of the globe is told through the eyes of a ship’s dog in this latest installment of the middle-grade Dog Chronicles.
Originally unnamed, just prodded to catch rats on sailing ships, the dog Leo is wary of humans and resolutely a loner. Then he meets Marco, an orphaned Spanish boy who has stowed away on the Trinidad, Magellan’s flagship, as Magellan begins his historic voyage to find a westward passage to the Spice Islands (now the Malukas, in modern-day Indonesia). It is Marco and Pigafetta, an Italian scribe who is aboard to chronicle the voyage, who name Leo after the dog saves Marco’s life. Remarkably rich in factual details, Hart’s accomplished narrative, told in first-person present-tense by Leo, animates the hardships endured—and courage needed—to sail into the literal unknown, threading them throughout Leo’s personal journey of learning to trust. Montgomery’s spot pencil illustrations enliven the narrative. Of particular note, Magellan’s cruelty, arrogance, and thirst for glory are not whitewashed, as Leo describes him ordering the destruction of indigenous villages because they refuse to convert to Christianity or swear allegiance to King Charles of Spain. A lengthy author’s note gives the facts behind the story and is vividly interesting in itself as a chronicle of 16th-century European knowledge and shipboard life.
Frank history, attention to factual detail, and vivid adventures make this a standout. (bibliography, further reading.) (Historical fiction. 7-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-56145-964-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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