A tale told in intricate, finely detailed pictures linked by occasional brief bursts of prose introduces Eloise-like young Ottoline, who shares a large apartment with hair-covered sidekick Mr. Munroe, collects odd single shoes and postcards from her parents (who are generally off on travels) and solves mysteries. Here, she concocts an elaborate scheme to track down a gaggle of missing lap dogs and to trap a cat burglar—who actually turns out to be a cat. Children who linger over the illustrations, ink drawings with occasional highlights in red, will find all sorts of odd, precisely depicted household objects and comical details among the gracefully posed human and animal characters. There’s an abstract air to the whole episode, but the plot trots along smoothly, and Riddell’s distinctive visual style shows off to better effect here than in the cramped art for his Edge Chronicles and other collaborations. Shelve this, the first volume of a projected three, with the graphic novels. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-144879-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008
Carolina’s life is not a perfect one, but she’s content. She, mother Melanie, and baby sister Trinity go from place to place in the old school bus that Melanie transformed into a home of sorts, with beds and a table and chairs—and no electricity or water, of course. They stop wherever there are opportunities for Melanie to find enough work to pay for food and other necessities; this time, they have taken up residence in a field above the ocean, where Carolina rescues an infant crow and it becomes her fast and only friend. She meets wheelchair-bound Stefan, whose father owns the field on which Carolina’s family is squatting. She and Stefan hit it off, and he introduces her to his mother, who takes an understandable interest in her; her own daughter, Heather, died. When Melanie decides to move to Oregon, Carolina stays behind with Crow, living with Stefan’s family. It’s inevitable that Carolina will change her mind—Melanie is a loving mother and Stefan’s mother has several issues to work out—but Hobbs (Get It While It’s Hot. Or Not., 1996, etc.) handles the path of Carolina’s reasoning well. It’s an unusual story, with interesting characters and a strong plot, and it’s fair to say that Crow steals the show, teaching Carolina how to accept change and to fly in spite of it. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 19, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-31153-6
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
From Jennings (Faith and the Rocket Cat, 1998, etc.), a quirky tale of two grebes with very different characters. Last of his clutch to hatch, Putnam responds to his mother’s neglect by teaching himself to dive, feed and, after the rest of the family departs unnoticed, fly. Seeing the world as a scary, dangerous place, he dives into a strange pond and, pulled by a deep current into an underwater cave, makes no effort to find a way out. In fact, the cave is filled with grebes, all huddled on ledges, unspeaking. Into this lightless, cheerless place splashes chatty, social, adventuresome Pennyroyal Grebe who, despite her best efforts to get acquainted, is so determinedly shunned by all that she begins to pine away. Finally, Putnam breaks ranks to feed her, and then to look for escape. Presenting this as a tale told to a feisty, skeptical nine-year-old, Jennings insists that there’s no lesson here, although thoughtful readers, like the child, will see through that claim. His story-within-the-story ends with Pennyroyal gone and Putnam still nerving himself to follow, but the child supplies a happy ending. Readers expecting an animal adventure along the lines of Avi’s, or Dick King-Smith’s, will be underwhelmed by this chewy allegory. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-439-07965-9
Page Count: 163
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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