McLaren, who illustrated Shana Corey’s delicious You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer (2000) may have a somewhat harder time finding an audience for this one. Her feline hero is a scruffy stray in Paris, and his tale is told in rhyme sprinkled with slightly fractured French (translation and pronunciation provided on each page). He leads his life in the Jardin Luxembourg and hangs around posh hotels, while maids and guards occasionally give chase. When Monsieur Pierre’s fashion show opens at Le Grand Salon, however, Cat sneaks backstage and, terrified, claws and rips the collection to shreds. But the show must go on, so the models slink out in their frayed frocks, and voilà! It’s a great success. The cat, christened Etoile, appears on the cover of Vogue, and everyone takes to shredding their dresses. McLaren has a vivacious and insinuating line, and her gouache drawings are predominantly black, rose, and red. They fairly burst from the page, full of joie de vivre as she sketches wonderful couture gowns, supercilious designers, and flower-filled rooms and streets. However, it is hard to see just what child appeal there might be, although adults (this is dedicated to those who “love Glamour, Paris & pink”) of the female persuasion may be charmed. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-439-27316-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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