by Bill Richardson & illustrated by Céline Malépart ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 2002
The Littles are a staid lot, formal to a fault. When they deign to let a dog into their house, there will be rules. Papa wants the dog, Sally Dog Little (“They never call her Sally for short. Formal families are not fond of ‘for short’ ”), to bark only at burglars; Mama wants her to attend her thrice-daily walks; little Twinkle Little wants her to sleep on her bed at night. Sally abides, until one day a pair of ghost pirates breezes into the house. Sally lets loose a howl. The Littles come running, but can’t see the ghosts. They admonish Sally: “If this happens again, you will have to go.” Sally realizes the ghosts must leave—if they stay she may well give an inadvertent bark—so she queries them as to their intentions. The pirates, Swiggity Jim and his dog Needles, inform Sally they are on their way to the place that ghosts go, but they need a piece of treasure to get there. That treasure, they say, might well be buried under the oak tree out back. That night they dig up a great treasure chest—“Har, har,” says Swiggity—but all Swiggity and Needles want is the map contained therein, leaving the treasure to Sally, telling her to help herself and then bury what remains for someone else to find. Sally grabs what most fetches her fancy—a big bone, obviously once the pearl in Needles’s eye—and buries the rest. The Littles are no wiser, nor, it seems, will they ever be to life’s strange pleasures. A well-told tale that tweaks the Littles enough you’d think some of their stuffing might fall out, and illustrated with the bright edginess of a Lane Smith, exaggerated to a fare-thee-well. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2002
ISBN: 1-55037-759-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
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by Bill Richardson ; illustrated by Bill Pechet
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by Bill Richardson ; illustrated by Slavka Kolesar
by Alex Vern & illustrated by Alex Vern ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2001
The lifecycle of the frog is succinctly summarized in this easy reader for children reading at the late first-grade level. In just one or two sentences per page, Vern details the amazing metamorphosis of the frog from egg to tadpole to adult, even injecting a little humor despite the tight word count. (“Watch out fly! Mmmm!) Large, full-color photographs on white backgrounds clearly illustrate each phase of development. Without any mention of laying eggs or fertilization, the title might be a bit misleading, but the development from black dot egg to full-grown frog is fascinating. A simple chart of the three main lifecycle steps is also included. Lifecycles are part of the standard curriculum in the early elementary grades, and this will be a welcome addition to school and public libraries, both for its informational value and as an easy reader. (Nonfiction/easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-216304-2
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Green Light/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
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by Aaron Reynolds ; illustrated by Peter Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 23, 2022
Chilling in the best ways.
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When a young rabbit who’s struggling in school finds a helpful crayon, everything is suddenly perfect—until it isn’t.
Jasper is flunking everything except art and is desperate for help when he finds the crayon. “Purple. Pointy…perfect”—and alive. When Jasper watches TV instead of studying, he misspells every word on his spelling test, but the crayon seems to know the answers, and when he uses the crayon to write, he can spell them all. When he faces a math quiz after skipping his homework, the crayon aces it for him. Jasper is only a little creeped out until the crayon changes his art—the one area where Jasper excels—into something better. As guilt-ridden Jasper receives accolade after accolade for grades and work that aren’t his, the crayon becomes more and more possessive of Jasper’s attention and affection, and it is only when Jasper cannot take it anymore that he discovers just what he’s gotten himself into. Reynolds’ text might as well be a Rod Serling monologue for its perfectly paced foreboding and unsettling tension, both gentled by lightly ominous humor. Brown goes all in to match with a grayscale palette for everything but the purple crayon—a callback to black-and-white sci-fi thrillers as much as a visual cue for nascent horror readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Chilling in the best ways. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6588-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
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