Mannered but pleasantly peculiar.
In her fourth adventure a young sleuth makes new friends both human and otherwise, organizes a costume party, and fosters a romance.
At the invitation of a nattily clad fox with purple fur who has turned one of her elegant apartment building’s rubbish bins into comfortable digs of his own, Ottoline Brown takes an “Urban Safari” that introduces her to her city’s nocturnal animal residents. These range from meerkats popping out of manholes, herds of tiny zebras, and blue flamingos roosting on the public library’s roof to the Crimson Vixen, a street poet who works as the fox’s assistant but is too shy to show that she has feelings for him. Having learned this last at the party, Ottoline and her silent, hairy companion, Mr. Munroe, organize a talent show that culminates in triumph with the vulpine couple engaging in an intimate (wait for it) foxtrot. As in previous episodes, this fey tale is related in a mix of short narrative passages with many fantastically meticulous line drawings featuring bold monochrome highlights (purple, here) and gracefully posed figures in finely detailed garb and surroundings. Ottoline heads a large cast of friends and housekeepers that is less diverse of race and ethnicity than of species, but, bearing as she does a distinct resemblance to Eloise in her upper-class, parent-free lifestyle, she continues to exhibit appealing self-confidence no matter how odd or surreal the situation. Riddell twice provides folding directions for a paper “Fancy Dress Fortune Teller” tucked into a rear pocket.
Mannered but pleasantly peculiar. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4472-7792-7
Page Count: 193
Publisher: Macmillan UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Bold deeds, betrayals, and buffoonery kick off this series with gusto.
Treacherous urban pets try to renege on an ancient deal with the wild residents of a city alleyway, and a young raccoon finds himself caught in the middle in this all-animal dramedy.
His parents done in by a pack of hired bloodhounds, Kit flees his beloved woodlands for squalid Ankle Snap Alley, a wretched hive of scum and villainy, where he immediately falls afoul of a pair of raccoon hustlers and the feared Rabid Rascals gang. Worse yet, he is also targeted by miniature greyhound Titus, leader of the Flealess (or house pets), and vicious cat Sixclaw. They think he carries a possible clue to the whereabouts of the missing Bone of Contention that accords the alley’s formerly feral residents a right to settle there. Fortunately, Kit not only falls in with Eeni, a savvy rat who vows friendship “from howl to snap” (i.e., birth to, well…), but finds other allies too while proving himself no slouch when it comes to quick thinking and courage in the clutch. Despite metal traps springing and some spilled blood, the tale features but one onstage death; London further lightens the load with references to such appetizing alley cuisine as Daily Trash Casserole plus a diverse supporting cast highlighted by evangelical church mice and a retired fighting cock–turned-hairdresser.
Bold deeds, betrayals, and buffoonery kick off this series with gusto. (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-17099-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An imaginative premise, fledged in showy if sometimes overdecorated finery.
A corvid catastrophe threatens swashbuckling Blue Jay and his mixed avian crew after a treetop shipwreck leaves them to the tender mercies of a murder of crows.
Reputed to be “generally the most bloodthirsty and fearsome pirate to sail the high skies” (but not really that bad), Blue Jay flies the Jolly Robin from his ship the Grosbeak. Aside, however, from occasional harmless plundering, he much prefers sailing grandly through the clouds. Still, after falling into the clutches of his more viciously piratical cousin Teach and getting their flight feathers clipped, he and his scrappy crew—particularly Gabriel, a recent hatchling who grows in the tale from an oversized and ungainly bumbler into a magnificent Branta goose—must act. They rise to defeat the crows in a pair of savage battles with help from flocks of sparrows and an intrepid mole. In his debut as a novelist, Nash’s dialogue comes off as stilted (“This evening… I managed to successfully facilitate a visit between our unwitting weasels and a she wolf,” reports the mole), and his efforts to inject mystical notes with repeated references to geese as gods or godlings seem labored. Otherwise, he crafts a merry romp that is much enhanced by frequent formally drawn ink-and-color scenes of an airborne galleon and full-body portraits of birds posing in 17th-century costume.
An imaginative premise, fledged in showy if sometimes overdecorated finery. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3264-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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