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A BOY AND A BEAR IN A BOAT

Name: A BOY AND A BEAR IN A BOAT
Author: Dave Shelton
ISBN: 978-0-385-75248-0

by Dave Shelton & illustrated by Dave Shelton ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 12, 2012

Diverting but unanchored, this is training wheels for Waiting for Godot.

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This ocean adventure reads fast and clever but remains what it says on the jacket. Without backstory, identities or context to moor the boy or the bear to the rest of the world, off floats the story on its own.

At first, the sly abstruseness in Shelton’s witty prose is intriguing, even exciting. A boy steps into a rowboat. The rower, a bear, asks “Where to?” The boy waves his hand “vaguely out across the water” and answers, “Just over to the other side, please.” A mystery! But clearly there’s another “side,” a place “where he was going,” even if its distance is farther than expected: “I thought you’d be able to see it [from here].” The diction is unflaggingly clean and clear, droll and mischievous (“A boringly gentle breeze thought about blowing, but decided in the end not to bother”). However, despite storms, sea-monster hazards and an ever-shifting bear/boy dynamic, this book never feels complete. There’s no journey’s end, nor disclosure of destination; hunger somehow becomes a conquerable philosophical challenge: “[H]is hunger had been there for so long that… [i]t was normal now and he didn’t really notice it.” Whatever the message—overcoming obstacles? staying at sea forever? overcoming the need for… food?—this is more allegory than any story form with closure.

Diverting but unanchored, this is training wheels for Waiting for Godot. (Fable. 8-12)

Pub Date: June 12, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-385-75248-0

Page Count: 304

Publisher: David Fickling/Random

Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BOOK CASE
by Dave Shelton ; illustrated by Dave Shelton

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THIRTEEN CHAIRS
by Dave Shelton ; illustrated by Dave Shelton

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THE WILD ROBOT PROTECTS

From the Wild Robot series , Vol. 3

by Peter Brown ; illustrated by Peter Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2023

Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.

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Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.

When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.

Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023

ISBN: 9780316669412

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
UNSETTLING SALAD!
by Aaron Reynolds ; illustrated by Peter Brown

- BOOK REVIEW
TROUBLING TONSILS!
by Aaron Reynolds ; illustrated by Peter Brown

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WILD ROBOT ON THE ISLAND
by Peter Brown ; illustrated by Peter Brown

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THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE

by Beverly Cleary & illustrated by Louis Darling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 22, 1965

The whimsy is slight—the story is not—and both its interest and its vocabulary are for the youngest members of this age...

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Beverly Cleary has written all kinds of books (the most successful ones about the irrepressible Henry Huggins) but this is her first fantasy.

Actually it's plain clothes fantasy grounded in the everyday—except for the original conceit of a mouse who can talk and ride a motorcycle. A toy motorcycle, which belongs to Keith, a youngster, who comes to the hotel where Ralph lives with his family; Ralph and Keith become friends, Keith gives him a peanut butter sandwich, but finally Ralph loses the motorcycle—it goes out with the dirty linen. Both feel dreadfully; it was their favorite toy; but after Keith gets sick, and Ralph manages to find an aspirin for him in a nearby room, and the motorcycle is returned, it is left with Ralph....

The whimsy is slight—the story is not—and both its interest and its vocabulary are for the youngest members of this age group. (Fantasy. 8-12)