All is not what it seems in this sweet, funny wordless picture book about a fox who steals a chicken. When morning breaks, a little multispecies family sits down for breakfast al fresco. A fox leaps from the shrubbery, grabs a white chicken and makes a run for it, while she screams for help. He is pursued by a bear, a rabbit and a rooster through a variety of landscapes and over the course of days and nights. The chicken’s friends never cease in their dogged pursuit, but sharp-eyed readers will notice a change: The fox cradles the chicken tenderly; in one nighttime hideaway they play a friendly game of chess. By the time bear, rabbit and rooster finally catch up to them, the chicken’s feelings have undergone a sea change—is it Stockholm Syndrome? Regardless, the end puts readers and pursuers 180 degrees from where the story had them starting. Rodriguez’s delicate line-and-watercolor paintings extend over disproportionately wide spreads (it opens to a 6” X 20” panorama), allowing children a wide-angle view of both lovely pastoral scenes and the comical capers taking place within them. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59270-092-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2010
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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