A fast-paced story filled with determined and courageous heroes.
Snatched away from the dog pack she’s been living in the wilderness with since a sudden military takeover, a human girl taken to a labor camp must escape and continue searching for her family.
Following a brief recap of events, the story picks up where the first book left off. Gwen is locked in the back of a truck, pursued by her dog companions, and she leaves scent marks for them by releasing strands of her hair through the bars. Imprisoned in a heavily guarded camp, where children are confined behind high walls topped by barbed wire, she meets fellow captive Rupert, who tells her that he’s seen her parents—and they’re being held with his mum and dad at a nearby adults’ work camp. Gwen becomes more determined than ever to find her dog friends and help the adults escape so they can free the children. Loyalty to their pack leader drives the dogs—a motley assortment of breeds of different sizes—to locate the camp. They cleverly work together to win Gwen’s freedom; Tiny the Chihuahua’s small size proves to be an advantage. Ley’s and Ji’s fluid black-and-white illustrations on nearly every page intensify the nonstop thrills and action. Do explores themes of resilience, courage, and friendship in this spirited tale in which the human and canine characters’ fidelity is tested. The illustrations depict light-skinned human figures.
A fast-paced story filled with determined and courageous heroes. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780063346062
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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