An entertaining tale about taking on fresh responsibilities and achieving a new status.
A lacewing whose family wrangles aphids hopes she can earn her lasso in this chapter book for children ages 7 to 10.
Young Libby Lacewing loves her life in Farmer Owens’ apple orchard, where her family’s job is to herd destructive aphids into the Wild, which is the forest to the west. All winter, Libby has hoped for her own lasso in anticipation of spring, but she got only a new pair of leaf boots and a cowboy hat. She’ll have a chance to prove herself as a wrangler, though, when her grandfather asks her to take a leaf of aphids across Sap River. Libby’s cousin Lars predicts disaster, betting she’ll lose every aphid. Her friend Oliver, “a self-proclaimed Junior knight”—in reality, a ladybug from a Midwestern garden’s English rosebush—passes on a prophecy from the lightning bugs: Sap River is cursed, and crossing it means losing something, being immersed in water, and taking a ride on a swamp creature. After getting her five aphids onto a leaf, Libby sets off poling through sticky Sap River but soon runs into trouble, losing her cargo. Vowing to find the insects again, Libby searches with Oliver—and discovers a whole aphid ranch run by ants. With a plan, some luck, and courage, Libby might be able to risk the curse and get all the aphids to the Wild. West (The Monster of Bogbean Swamp, 2018) admits in a coda that lacewings and ladybugs actually eat aphids rather than safely relocating them, but that doesn’t get in the way of this enjoyable coming-of-age tale that cleverly calls on Western tropes. The adventures, rescues, and three-part curse have excitement and unexpected twists, such as an aphid stampede. Oliver is an excellent and doughty companion (“Do not fear,” he reassures Libby when a spider attacks. “I have mastered the art of web fung shu”). Libby’s jeering cousin, meanwhile, makes a good foil as someone to overcome. The vintage-feeling, black-and-white illustrations by Pavlova (The Monster of Bogbean Swamp, 2018, etc.) are dynamic and amusing.
An entertaining tale about taking on fresh responsibilities and achieving a new status.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-983683-75-6
Page Count: 42
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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