This pre–summer camp anxiety-soother has the advantage of an awesome setting.
A reluctant young summer camper expects to have a lousy time on the moon, where there are “no video games or oxygen or ANYTHING fun.”
Of course, in the end Lucas has the opposite experience—but not before some in-flight humiliation (“Zero-G makes me feel barfy”), having to sleep suspended from a wall hook because the bunk beds are all taken, getting lost on a nature hike, seeing the vacuum toilet, and like horrors. But then the arrival of equally unwilling Sam with a new group of campers results in an instant friendship that makes every part of camping, even the food, exponentially more awesome. Even having to suck “imitation hot dog substitute” through straws doesn’t keep anyone around the final, rocket-fueled campfire from agreeing in chorus that Moon Camp is “a gigantic ton of…FUN!!” In the end, back in his bedroom and bathed in moonlight streaming in through the window, Lucas dreamily looks forward to next summer. Both in the all-genders camp and back on Earth, grown-ups, Lucas, and the rest of the bubble-helmeted young campers in Gott’s cartoon illustrations display a subtle range of skin tones. Lucas himself is green at barfy moments but more usually has light brown skin; Sam presents Black. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 77% of actual size.)
This pre–summer camp anxiety-soother has the advantage of an awesome setting. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20267-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absolute pleasure.
A small dog takes a huge leap.
True to her name, sled dog puppy Leap spends her days bounding happily through blankets of freshly fallen snow, bouncily biding her time until she, too, can suit up for a run with the team. Each dog brings a different, equally essential skill to the work of mushing, and as too-young Leap greets the pack when they return from their daily hike, she worries—what if she lacks a special talent of her own when it’s her time to race? But when the much-anticipated day arrives and Leap clips in for her rookie run, her feet tippity-tap excitedly, any trace of self-doubt eclipsed by her irrepressible enthusiasm. With their new addition in tow, the other dogs take off, buoyed as ever by a confidence borne from specialized expertise; they confront obstacles head-on, sailing easily along icy Northwoods terrain. That is until the team encounters a seemingly insurmountable hurdle, one that only their greenest member can clear. Dogsled racer Braverman’s sweet narrative builds a satisfying case for individuality as a community asset, celebrating both the value of teamwork and the discrete strengths that comprise it. Savvy readers will take pride in predicting Leap’s unique contribution, while canine lovers will delight in the revelation that the pups depicted are all real-life sled dogs working in northern Wisconsin. When’s illustrations are equal parts spellbinding and precious, deftly balancing compositional simplicity with masterful color work. The result is peerless.
An absolute pleasure. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780063238053
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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