A blunt, at times knee-slapping story suitable for perceptive young readers, those unsure of social cues, and global readers...
Hamster—a sarcastic, egocentric, yet still enjoyable protagonist—travels with his band of patient, tolerant timberland friends to the Arctic Circle.
In a series of short, amusing vignettes, Hamster, Mole, Hedgehog, Snail, and Rabbit leave their clearing to visit Bear’s cousin, Polar Bear. Dialogue and offbeat humor move the substantial import forward as small episodes play out. Hamster remains disgruntled and disillusioned; Mole and Hedgehog shy from their innocent, mutual crush; and the group assembles for their unlikely holiday destination: the North Pole. The most successful exchange between characters, titled “Do-it-yourself,” shows Hamster approaching Snail, hoisting supplies and a toolbox. “Snail, I’ve got a job to do. Would you give me a hand?” Snail responds, “Sure, Hamster, what are you making?” Dropping the items onto the ground and flattening a small flower patch, Hamster pivots, giving Snail his back; as he walks away he nonchalantly replies, “A spaceship. Have fun, Snail.” Crushed, like the flower patch, Snail is left alone, giving a whole new meaning to DIY. Martin’s simple, subtle depictions—reminiscent of Bob Shea's and Mo Willems’ character drawings, they are rarely to scale and appear against vast, white or solid-colored backgrounds—adorn Desbordes’ unconventional, comical dialogue.
A blunt, at times knee-slapping story suitable for perceptive young readers, those unsure of social cues, and global readers alike. (Graphic novel. 7 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-9272-7183-4
Page Count: 126
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style.
A summer vacation turns out to be anything but relaxing for Greg and a teeming horde of Heffleys.
Gramma declines the offer of a grand birthday celebration, saying that “what would make her REALLY happy is if everyone else went to Ruttyneck Island”—though she prepares individual packs of her legendary meatballs. (“You knew exactly how much Gramma likes you by how many meatballs you got.”) A gaggle of Heffley relatives and a dog stuff themselves into a small beach house, where overcrowding, personality conflicts, and simmering resentments become just some of the ingredients in a rolling boil of sitcom-style catastrophes, not to mention questionable decisions ranging from leaving the kids to make dinner unsupervised to labeling a cooler “HUMAN ORGANS” to keep random passersby from helping themselves. As usual, Greg supplies the setups in poker-faced journal entries interspersed with black-and-white drawings of slouched figures bearing frowny expressions of dismay or annoyance to cue the laffs. Gramma, it eventually turns out, not only (unsurprisingly) has plans of her own, but is also keeping a shocking secret about those meatballs. To go with the knee-slapping set pieces, Kinney slips in a tasty bit of family lore about how Greg’s parents met, plus droll takes on such low-hanging comedy fruit as restaurant manners, viciously competitive board games, and social media influencers (Greg being one, albeit with zero followers, and his Aunt Veronica’s little dog being another, with 3.8 million).
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781419766954
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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