For a box of jelly doughnuts and two Get-Out-of-Detention-Free cards, fourth-grade gumshoe Chet Gecko takes on his most baffling case yet: someone—or something—is trashing the classrooms of Emerson Hicky Elementary, leaving huge footprints, claw marks on the walls, and an aroma of peanut butter. Though Chet suspects The Dirty Rotten Stinkers, a sixth-grade gang led by oversized tarantula Erik Nidd, the waters are considerably muddied by reports of a giant hamster haunting school grounds at night. What gives? It’s all faculty intrigue, as it turns out, with one teacher and her professed love slave (an assistant custodian) trying to frame a rival who has transformed a meek library assistant into a were-hamster. Chet’s overwrought prose (“Some Mondays drag in like a wet dog, dripping puddles of gloom and trailing a funky stink . . .”) and nonstop penchant for cracking wise, along with his mockingbird sidekick Natalie Attired’s fondness for bad jokes, more than compensate for the truly hyper-contrived plot. A cast of grammar-school tough guys inhabits the scattered illustrations, and, as crime waits for no gecko, trailers for Chet’s next few capers are appended. Clever, good fun. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-202530-0
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2002
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay.
Renowned Latin American writer Alvarez has created another story about cultural identity, but this time the primary character is 11-year-old Miguel Guzmán.
When Tía Lola arrives to help the family, Miguel and his hermana, Juanita, have just moved from New York City to Vermont with their recently divorced mother. The last thing Miguel wants, as he's trying to fit into a predominantly white community, is a flamboyant aunt who doesn't speak a word of English. Tía Lola, however, knows a language that defies words; she quickly charms and befriends all the neighbors. She can also cook exotic food, dance (anywhere, anytime), plan fun parties, and tell enchanting stories. Eventually, Tía Lola and the children swap English and Spanish ejercicios, but the true lesson is "mutual understanding." Peppered with Spanish words and phrases, Alvarez makes the reader as much a part of the "language" lessons as the characters. This story seamlessly weaves two culturaswhile letting each remain intact, just as Miguel is learning to do with his own life. Like all good stories, this one incorporates a lesson just subtle enough that readers will forget they're being taught, but in the end will understand themselves, and others, a little better, regardless of la lengua nativa—the mother tongue.
Simple, bella, un regalo permenente: simple and beautiful, a gift that will stay. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80215-0
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The book is a cute, but rather standard offering from Avi (Tom, Babette, and Simon, p. 776, etc.).
An adolescent mouse named Poppy is off on a romantic tryst with her rebel boyfriend when they are attacked by Mr. Ocax, the owl who rules over the area.
He kills the boyfriend, but Poppy escapes and Mr. Ocax vows to catch her. Mr. Ocax has convinced all the mice that he is their protector when, in fact, he preys on them mercilessly. When the mice ask his permission to move to a new house, he refuses, blaming Poppy for his decision. Poppy suspects that there is another reason Mr. Ocax doesn't want them to move and investigates to clear her name. With the help of a prickly old porcupine and her quick wits, Poppy defeats her nemesis and her own fears, saving her family in the bargain.
The book is a cute, but rather standard offering from Avi (Tom, Babette, and Simon, p. 776, etc.). (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-531-09483-9
Page Count: 147
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
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