Postal pranks and mailroom mischief make for a series starter worth writing home about.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night keeps this plucky mouse from his deliveries.
Having grown up hearing the tales of his intrepid Great-Aunt Ada, aka “the GREATEST MAILMOUSE WHO EVER LIVED,” Marty Moose is determined to follow in her footsteps. (The book’s opening pages explain that Marty’s unusual name is the result of a birth certificate error.) He sallies forth on his first day of work. Unfortunately, a prankster in the mailroom has slipped two packages that don’t belong into Marty’s pack. Initially all goes well, and though Marty gets lost while making deliveries in a rabbit warren, he befriends Nibbles Frizzby, a bunny best described as a “complete and utter kook,” with a personality that’s equal parts trickster and wise fool. When Marty delivers the prankster’s packages to a pair of feuding toads, he finds himself in dire circumstances. Now Marty must not only escape with his life, but also find the blackguard who’s tricked him. Plenty of potty humor and a justified but still mean-spirited ending threaten to waylay the book’s earnest premise, but Marty’s good humor and Nibbles’ genuine hilarity do much to alleviate such concerns. Powell’s expressive and cartoonish line drawings also bring to life both Marty’s own emotional roller coaster and the chaos his adventures unleash.
Postal pranks and mailroom mischief make for a series starter worth writing home about. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781536247800
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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