Fans of the resourceful Gaskitt family, introduced in The Man Who Wore All His Clothes (2001), will welcome this new, multi-stranded caper. While Mrs. Gaskitt is at home winning a year’s supply of Crunchy Mice Cat Food, a houseful of new furniture and other prizes from various sweepstakes, the arrival of a grandmotherly substitute teacher, Mrs. Plum, at school coincides with such a sudden rash of missing possessions that the Gaskitt twins and their classmates begin to get suspicious. In McEwan’s bright, simply drawn cartoons, Mrs. Gaskitt rushes energetically about, while Mrs. Plum is the picture of innocence—until the two collide shortly after the school fair’s cash box vanishes, and loot spills from Mrs. Plum’s big, wheeled suitcase. Running jokes and surprises further animate this cheery tale, which will draw “Young Cam Jansen” graduates like flies. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-1721-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
McDonald’s irrepressible third-grader (Judy Moody Gets Famous, 2001, etc.) takes a few false steps before hitting full stride. This time, not only has her genius little brother Stink submitted a competing entry in the Crazy Strips Band-Aid design contest, but in the wake of her science teacher’s heads-up about rainforest destruction and endangered animals, she sees every member of her family using rainforest products. It’s all more than enough to put her in a Mood, which gets her in trouble at home for letting Stink’s pet toad, Toady, go free, and at school for surreptitiously collecting all the pencils (made from rainforest cedar) in class. And to top it off, Stink’s Crazy Strips entry wins a prize, while she gets . . . a certificate. Chronicled amusingly in Reynolds’s frequent ink-and-tea drawings, Judy goes from pillar to post—but she justifies the pencil caper convincingly enough to spark a bottle drive that nets her and her classmates not only a hundred seedling trees for Costa Rica, but the coveted school Giraffe Award (given to those who stick their necks out), along with T-shirts and ice cream coupons. Judy’s growing corps of fans will crow “Rare!” right along with her. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7636-1446-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Nearly a third of this addition to the ``Imagine Living Here'' series describes life in the Australian outback, where ``a mid-sized station with eight thousand sheep is two hundred square miles.'' Cobb states that ``If you lived on the outback of Australia, the only people you would see every day would be your own family''; indeed, the illustration shows a man shearing by hand with just his wife and two children assisting. Is it possible for two adults to shear 8000 sheep without assistance? Balance is a problem throughout; e.g., only one page discusses aboriginal people, while Captain Cook rates three. And, though decorative, the landscapes are so stylized as to be useless for identification, while not only sheep but the platypus, emu, and spiny anteater are all sky blue. Visually striking, but this adds little to the understanding of flora, fauna, or people. (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: June 5, 1991
ISBN: 0-8027-6959-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1991
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