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NO DOGS ALLOWED!

As far back as she can remember, her grandparent’s horse has been her secret delight, refuge, and confidant, but when it dies, eight-year-old Kristine feels off balance, and instead of grieving, creates an emotional distance to protect herself from further hurt. The first-person narrative examines her progressive withdrawal and close nuclear-family support during her psychological struggle. Kristine thinks she is subtle in her rejection of Grandpa’s gift, a bright cuddly puppy, but Wallace expertly reveals what Kristine has hidden from herself, using her own words. Wallace skillfully builds bibliotherapeutic text rife with internal struggle, yet reveals, beneath the conflict, a happy, healthy, and well-balanced family life infused with warmth and humor. Grandpa and Kristine thieve cookie dough while grandma isn’t looking, homework and chores are dutifully performed, and family well-being always comes first. Despite some didactic text and conversation and phrasing too grown-up for the characters delivering them, cunningly told. (Fiction. 8-9)

Pub Date: June 15, 2004

ISBN: 0-8234-1818-9

Page Count: 214

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004

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RED-EYED TREE FROG

Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-590-87175-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999

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DAVID GOES TO SCHOOL

The poster boy for relentless mischief-makers everywhere, first encountered in No, David! (1998), gives his weary mother a rest by going to school. Naturally, he’s tardy, and that’s but the first in a long string of offenses—“Sit down, David! Keep your hands to yourself! PAY ATTENTION!”—that culminates in an afterschool stint. Children will, of course, recognize every line of the text and every one of David’s moves, and although he doesn’t exhibit the larger- than-life quality that made him a tall-tale anti-hero in his first appearance, his round-headed, gap-toothed enthusiasm is still endearing. For all his disruptive behavior, he shows not a trace of malice, and it’ll be easy for readers to want to encourage his further exploits. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-590-48087-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999

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