That intrepid hitchhiking doll is back—and gone, as his repeat trek from South Carolina to California goes terribly awry, and Tameka enlists the help of Paige Hall, an investigative reporter, to track him down. With the help of Tameka’s Uncle Ray, Paige sets a new wooden figure, Ms. Imogene Poplar, P.I., to tail him. The caper’s format follows very closely in the pattern set in the first outing, featuring letters and postcards sent back and forth between Tameka and Paige, and updates from characters Imogene encounters on the road as she is borne along on Oliver’s trail from Rock Hill to Alaska. (How Oliver ends up in Alaska instead of California is revealed in a sequence that unfolds on the title and copyright pages.) Cepeda’s signature oils-over-acrylic illustrations fairly fizz with energy and good humor, sliding occasional glimpses of Oliver into the backgrounds as Imogene pursues him across the great American landscape. Pattison’s epistolary text does yeomanly work, giving each of Imogene’s helpers a distinctive character and developing a romance subplot between Paige and Uncle Ray. As with its predecessor, understatement and ambiguity are everything; Oliver’s fans will happily embrace both. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-15-205184-8
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
A hard-boiled text for determined new readers in pursuit of wordplay.
A whodunit for newly independent readers with wordplay galore.
Detective Wilcox and Capt. Griswold are two anthropomorphic mice on the crime beat at the farm. They are “Missing Food Investigators.” The text that follows their story is broken up into some sections that emulate police logs and short chapters with narrative text and dialogue. Both parts, however, are laden with puns. “The poached egg” of the title is a stolen egg belonging to one Henrietta Hen. When she calls to report the crime Wilcox asks, “Did she fly the coop?” The MFIs interrogate various suspects about potential “fowl play” around the farm, including the loquacious Gabby Goose and Col. Peck, the rooster. Handwriting analysis and the thief’s slip-up at an egg contest lead the rodent gumshoes to the culprit, a “rotten egg” indeed, by the end of the book. Cartoon illustrations bolster the humor of the text and will provide some context clues, though the layout is rather cluttered and the text is likely too complex in large, overwhelming text blocks for many new readers; kids readying themselves to move on to chapter books should find it a suitable challenge.
A hard-boiled text for determined new readers in pursuit of wordplay. (Early reader. 7-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-939547-30-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun and bouncy young kids’ book that’s sure to appeal with its big kids’ look.
Marty Frye is a private eye who solves the crimes while speaking in rhyme in a reissue of a 1998 effort.
Marty solves three mysteries in this very brief chapter book that’s just as much a cleverly concealed early reader. First, Marty helps Emma find her missing diary, which disappeared just after their teacher turned on a movie for the class to watch. By interviewing (in rhyme) his classmates and examining the scene of the crime, Marty deduces what might have happened to Emma’s book. Next, he helps the man who runs the local toy store find a missing box of action figures. Finally, he helps his little sister locate a misplaced bag of flour. These very short, high-interest episodes are presented in bold, large-print type on pages that are rich with numerous amusing, cartoonlike illustrations. Marty is depicted as white in the cover art. Almost none of the other characters are described, but most of them also seem white in the illustrations. The cadence of Marty’s rhyming dialogue is somewhat infectious, and it has the added benefit of helping young readers tackle unfamiliar (but rhyming) words. Although character development is minimal in this plot-driven tale, the mysteries are satisfyingly simple enough to figure out just before Marty pulls them together.
A fun and bouncy young kids’ book that’s sure to appeal with its big kids’ look. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-11661-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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