As Brian Higman, alias the Big Hig, tells it, he’s due a detention, because he can’t turn in his English homework to “The General,” his fourth-grade teacher Miss Fromme. He tries to outmaneuver her using all legitimate ploys to sidetrack her, but in the effort of explaining why his homework isn’t done, he discovers his stories have riveted friends, school staff and the principal; even Miss Fromme is begging to hear more. Full of nuclear family hijinks, this first-person narrative multitasks as a great slice of life from a funny nine-year-old boy, encouragement for reluctant writers and instruction on how to write an interesting and satisfying story. Supporting an atmosphere for creative writing, DiSalvo developed fun-loving characters and a well-paced plot with her usual aplomb. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8234-1947-9
Page Count: 103
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2006
Jeram brings back characters from Bunny, My Honey (1999) for this poignant tale about families. Although they are different species, the three friends—Bunny, Little Duckling, and Miss Mouse—form a unique family along with Mommy Rabbit. Instead of trying to make her “little Honeys” conform to some one ideal, the wise mother rabbit embraces their differences, incorporating their individuality into a special song created for the trio. Soft pastel illustrations capture both the playfulness of the threesome, and the loving bonds of the family. Through the song and the games the Honeys play, Jeram encourages readers to rejoice in diversity—a warm and timely message in a world full of complex and extended families. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0846-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
PLB 0-06-027164-7 Joyce (The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, 1996, etc.) plays with circles, curls, and curves the way a writer plays with language, creating a visually dazzling story about the everyday capers of a family of round Rolie Polies. Rolie Polie Olie is a toy of a boy, an electro-comic character from a futuristic, alien planet “way up high in the Rolie Polie sky.” In the morning he rolls out of bed, brushes his teeth, and recharges his head. At breakfast he dances the Rolie Polie Rumba dance in underpants, then rides aboard the hip-hop mop to wash his teapot house from tip to top. With a rhyme that would be strained in less sure hands, Joyce takes Olie through a hip-hip-hooray day of play and into bedtime, landing Olie in “a bunch of trouble” until he is “Rolie Polie sad” and misses the nightly kiss on his Rolie Polie head. Computer-generated, digitized backgrounds lend an SF atmosphere to every scene, while the flamboyant colors work in concert to create—appropriately, given the character’s origins—an effect of suspended animation. An eccentric blend of the cinematic and familial that is coming to be known as vintage Joyce. (Picture book. 2-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-027163-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
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