King-Smith's whimsical fantasy gets a science fiction twist in this story of a friendship between a girl and a vacationing extraterrestrial in the role usually assigned to a fairy godmother. Harriet, eight, has been contentedly living with her father and pony on an English farm. Then she meets a hare who likes to chat. It turns out that he is just visiting Earth and trying out various life forms, although he seems to prefer being a hare. He recognizes Harriet's need for a mother and provides one. She arrives in the form of a children's book writer who first stops at the farm for eggs and befriends both Harriet and her widower father; the latter she ultimately agrees to marry. This is another of King-Smith's quality easy chapter books, though not as compelling as Babe: The Gallant Pig or Three Terrible Trins (both Crown, 1993 and 1994). But if there is less action in this than in some of his more recent titles, the cover makes it clear that this is aimed at more thoughtful readers, who will enjoy it immensely. (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: April 3, 1995
ISBN: 0-517-59830-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
A first-person narration puts forth an imagined version of a cat’s inner thoughts as it prowls through the night, and the events are more hushed than the horror-movie title implies. In spare, irregular rhyme, Duncan (Trapped!, 1998, etc.) leads readers on a walk as a house cat goes to “tread on silken toes,” “lap from china bowls,” or “dream of birds and fishes.” The text, while hardly warranting an entire picture book, sets a mood for the tranquil, moon-drenched oil paintings. Each spread is so soundless, it will have readers tiptoeing through the pages, imagining the soft padding of cat feet or the mysterious mewing of a contented kitty. Outlines of string give the cat cunning definition, as do blocks of color that create an unbroken sense of night, subtly laced with a smattering of block-printed stars, moons, and clover. While the cozy paintings are sure to please, the oddly unsatisfying poem hovers around the edges, hinting at the mysterious nature of felines, but failing to deliver adventure, surprise, or true delight. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-670-87513-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
This exploration of the fear of the new and different—the strange, as in “stranger”—is so heavily tilted to the gathering worries of the young protagonists that the ultimate meeting with the object of their concern is supremely anticlimactic. Two kittens, Cosy and Posy, are informed by their mother that Giraffe is coming to dinner. Having never met Giraffe, the kittens are at first curious and then increasingly alarmed as they hear from their friends about Giraffe’s oddness, from his long neck and spots to his height. When Giraffe appears, he offers the kittens his neck as a slide and instantly all is right with the world. There is relief, but no sense that the kittens know how baseless their fears were, nor that their trepidations were simply products of their imaginations. Readers may come away with the feeling that the kittens were soothed this time, but that the next time their fears will be just as out of control. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30059-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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