An entertaining, short novel for early readers that promotes creativity, friendship, and acceptance.
In Wallace’s (Trojan, 2016) middle-grade novel, illustrated by Dean (A Bark in a Prayer, 2015), a misfit bunny finds a home and learns to accept himself as he is.
Ralphy is a long-eared rabbit whose unusual looks condemn him to be passed over by prospective owners as other animals find new homes. But one day he finally finds his home with Marta, a young girl who convinces her parents, Daddy John and Mama Sarah, that she’d much rather have an out-of-the-ordinary rabbit than a dog or a cat. Ralphy soon settles into Marta’s house, making friends with Goldie, the resident fish, but his new niche is threatened when Marta brings home an injured feline, whom she names Oscar. Ralphy is jealous of the new arrival, and his antagonism increases when he discovers that the cat is only faking an injury in order to avoid the streets. With Goldie’s help, Ralphy hatches a plan to visit Marvin the Magician, whom he’s seen on TV, so that he may change into a real boy and reclaim his position as the family favorite. A series of mishaps on the way to the flea market leaves Ralphy and Oscar relying on each other to survive. Wallace’s contribution to talking-pets literature is an enjoyable one, featuring a compelling plot and engaging characters. Ralphy’s sense of inadequacy comes across as endearing without crossing over into self-pity (“She was the first kid that wanted him. He wanted her, too”). The animals’ struggle for household supremacy raises the stakes of their minor conflicts, and Ralphy’s and Oscar’s efforts to hide from animal control and avoid becoming stray dogs’ dinner create an age-appropriate atmosphere of peril. Although the book presents its moral a bit too forcefully in the closing pages, the overall story retains its entertainment value. Dean’s simple grayscale illustrations, sprinkled throughout the text, are valuable additions to the narrative—making it clear, for example, that Ralphy’s ears truly are ridiculous.
An entertaining, short novel for early readers that promotes creativity, friendship, and acceptance.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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