by Brianna Genteman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 11, 2013
A swashbuckling nautical adventure that often sails smoothly in spite of its author’s treacherous grip on the English...
The high seas are full of fleas in Genteman’s debut children’s novel.
Romney is a quiet British sheep who is constantly getting picked on by bullies at school and pestered by his little sister, Babette. Although he’s weak and bookish by nature, he dreams of becoming a sailor. His wish is granted when he finds a mysterious gold key and an empty chest, and he and Babette accidentally become stowaways on a pirate ship. Fortunately, the motley crew of the Grey Gulls doesn’t do much pillaging or plundering. They’re more interested in finding the hidden island of Atlantis, where their captain, Argyle the ram, is convinced his long-lost brother is hiding. Soon Romney finds himself caught up in the adventure of his dreams—fighting evil buccaneers, finding love, and protecting his little sister. He even gets an eye patch. Of course, when his sister gets kidnapped (again) after a brush with less friendly pirates, he begins to think his new life might be a bit too exciting. The animals in this story don’t walk on all fours or eat grass. They fight with swords, wear clothes, steer sailing ships while making speeches about honor and courage, and occasionally communicate in terrible Spanish. The author seems to have made them animals instead of humans for no other reason than the endless opportunities for sheep puns. But the cast is large and colorful, and there’s more than enough action to keep a 12-year-old reader engaged. The tale, however, needs an editor. Serious spelling and grammar errors abound, and at times, the prose is barely intelligible: “Mitten’s saw the Coral on the horizon and thought that this would be a prim chance to give this wanted rouge a show of force.” But young readers able to see through the slew of mistakes will find a fun fantasy underneath.
A swashbuckling nautical adventure that often sails smoothly in spite of its author’s treacherous grip on the English language.Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 311
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Jeff Kinney ; illustrated by Jeff Kinney ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 2019
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
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SEEN & HEARD
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 2014
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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