Even readers who don’t consider themselves dog people may start seeing the world from Shep’s point of view and turning the...
If a dog wrote a book about the adventures of a dog, it would sound almost exactly like this, although some people might think the dog was exaggerating a bit.
It’s possible readers have never thought about what a dog would say if dogs could talk. But Lorentz, very credibly, creates an entire dog vocabulary. A vacuum is a floor-sucker. A television is a light-window. Afternoon is midsun. One midsun, the light-window shows a storm coming, and the dog is abandoned by his human family. By chapter two, the city is nothing but dogs, and the main character, Shep, has to find shelter, even if it means battling whole packs of wild canines. Lorentz moves from fight scenes to tidal waves at a pace that would leave White Fang or Bodger gasping. In fact, this trilogy opener sometimes resembles a television series, with wacky characters who argue and make up in the end. There are far too many of these characters, and cynical readers may start picturing the Happy Meal toys. But even jaded children will want to know what happens next, and there are some genuine surprises. Not every moment is plausible—can dogs really open locks?—but the story is never dull.
Even readers who don’t consider themselves dog people may start seeing the world from Shep’s point of view and turning the pages faster and faster. (Animal fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-27643-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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