A scrappy feline protagonist enriches this seasonal story of seeking a home.
Luke explores the well-known pairing of black cats and Halloween in this debut children’s tale.
Bernard, more commonly known as “B,” once had a human companion who loved him very much. But in the months since Mrs. Blue’s death, B has lived the difficult life of a stray, scrounging for scraps in the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, while doing his best to avoid the Feral Cat Crusaders. He wishes for another human to call his own but must content himself with the companionship of his new friend, Victor the crow. On one chilly October evening just before Halloween, B comes across a poster advertising “The Black Cat Contest,” which promises a home to whoever can win the competition. Though B is wary of being out so close to Halloween, when “the spirits of those who’d recently departed roamed the sacred earth,” he chooses to report to Bella the Willow Witch at the Willow Cemetery that night in hopes of attaining a new home. Eight other black cats answer the call, including B’s friend Catcher. At the gathering, Bella explains that each cat must fetch “a gulp of breath from a naughty girl or boy,” the tail of a rat, and the source of magic belonging to one of the witches living in town (“Their source might be drawn from an amulet like the sorcerer’s stone or it could be a simple piece of string”) before Halloween ends. Whoever does the best with the challenges will earn a position as Bella’s familiar. B attacks the tasks with determination, but he faces many obstacles on the path to finding a place to call home. Luke’s prose is playful, particularly when describing the intricacies of cat behavior (the feline dialect has “thirty-six documented hisses, one hundred and nine purrs, [and] twenty-seven meows in nineteen variations”), though there are a few jarring phrases (“Godzilla-size room,” “concourse…the length of a football field”) that distract from the story. The integration of classic Halloween elements like ghosts and witches helps set the scene, though the fairies feel superfluous and out of context. An unexpected ending refreshes an otherwise straightforward plot.
A scrappy feline protagonist enriches this seasonal story of seeking a home.Pub Date: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4575-4577-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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