Zany adventures to delight aficionados of the absurd.
Inventive friends construct some improbable gizmos.
The starring animal pair, a moose and a rabbit (made of golden honey, always melting but never depleted), fear for their latest creation. They left their Triple-Decker Hunger Wrecker (eight cheeses, sprinkles, and a hot-dog center) cooking in their treehouse, but Honey Bunny has accidentally wrecked the stairway. How will they return to the treehouse? Honey Bunny is too hungry to think, and Muk Muk can’t devise a solution without his tools. Necessity proves the mother of invention; other forest denizens approach the pair with problems, and Muk Muk and Honey Bunny rummage through the detritus of the damaged stairway to come up with wacky devices—which just may help them resolve their own issue. A pair of “Springy-Sproingy Hop-o-Matics,” strapped to Muk Muk’s hooves, allow the moose to soar through the air and retrieve a fig for a frog friend’s breakfast, but they don’t get him high enough to reach the treehouse. Makeshift stilts, built to wade into a briar patch to retrieve a stranded hedgehog, prove similarly problematic. Will the two finally succeed? Though this tale isn’t as maniacally illustrated as some of Bean’s other work, it still features dense colors and enjoyably slapstick scenes. The writing is lively and accessible, the characters successfully differentiated, and the pacing steady: This new series should find willing fans.
Zany adventures to delight aficionados of the absurd. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593658963
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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