A sweet, accessible early reader that takes its time getting to the adventure.
A three-legged dog approaches everyday life with boundless enthusiasm in this series opener.
Scrapper is a small pup with one floppy ear and an irrepressible spirit; a missing front leg doesn’t slow down this dog one bit. Scrapper adores playing fetch with Hank (the human boy who takes care of him), chewing bones, and exploring the nearby forest, where a terrifying monster lives. Scrapper’s determined to find the creature, but he’ll need help. He and his best doggy friend, Bo, and a young calf named Moon form Camp Monster-Finder, and Scrapper begins recruiting fellow adventurers. Soon it’s time to track down that monster once and for all. Landy’s charcoal-gray illustrations appear on nearly every page, capturing Scrapper’s expressiveness and energy through simple, appealing pencil drawings that effectively convey his three-legged gait and joyful personality. The generous white space, large font, and short sentences make this tale well suited for newly independent readers transitioning to chapter books. Scrapper’s first-person narration is engaging and age-appropriate, filled with doggy enthusiasm (“I’ll fetch a stick, a Frisbee, a bouncy ball…anything that can be thrown, really!”), though at times the plot meanders through some slow sequences. Hank has paper-white skin. Final art not seen.
A sweet, accessible early reader that takes its time getting to the adventure. (Early chapter book. 5-9)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798347102037
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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