by Elizabeth Shreeve & illustrated by Pamela Levy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2004
Shreeve opens a Ready for Chapters series with this engaging tale of a bug forced into a horizon-expanding odyssey when his cozy burrow is taken over by a flea circus. Being a wumble-bug—“a home-loving creature you won’t find in any book, except for this one of course”—Hector is understandably miffed to be forced out of his digs. Stuffing a backpack with gum, a pocketknife, and other necessities, he departs, little suspecting the discomfort, not to mention outright danger, he’s about to face from a frantic mother hummingbird, a hungry bullfrog, and other residents of his bug-eat-bug world. The author keeps the tone light, though, tucking in tongue-in-cheek details—being six-legged, Hector can play a piano duet with himself—and bringing her wandering wumble-bug back, with mementos of his travels, to a home from which the fleas have departed as suddenly as they arrived. Levy’s sketchy, full-page scenes (not really seen) provide a bug’s-eye view of Hector, bumbling his way through one misadventure after another. Lighthearted, slightly challenging fare for easy reader graduates. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-689-86414-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2003
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by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000
The mind behind the redoubtable Captain Underpants teams up with a new illustrator for a new series, featuring a pipsqueak mouse and his humongous metal friend. Enraged when his new robot refuses to destroy nearby Squeakyville, mad doctor Stinky McNasty turns a classroom lizard into a monster with a drop of Hate Potion #9. In the meantime, the robot, having bonded with little Ricky, intimidated the bullies who threw his backpack in the garbage, and taken up residence in his garage, lumbers into battle, saving the day in a flurry of reader-animated “Flip-O-Rama” scenes. In thick-lined cartoons, the hamfisted robot looks like Popeye in sheet metal; the bad guys all have squinty eyes; the fight is all. Children younger than the Captain’s readership may find this droll, but Pilkey’s just treading water; so rudimentary is the plot, so stock the characters, and so free is this of humor, that it may sink like the proverbial lead balloon. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-590-30719-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ; color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
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by Judy Sierra ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1999
A vigorously told comic adventure.
Inspired by local versions of a popular Japanese folktale, Sierra (Antarctic Antics, 1998, etc.) recasts a yarn that usually stars Momotaro, or “Peach Boy,” with a female lead.
When giant, ogre-like oni take away all the village’s babies to make snacks of their tasty navels, little Uriko-hime is left behind; she was born from a melon, and so has no belly button. Gathering up a small band of animal companions along the way, Uriko tricks the monsters into walloping themselves with clubs, and rescues the children, leaving delicious millet dumplings behind in consolation. Clad in a flowing, watermelon-colored kimono, Uriko makes a doughty heroine, equally skilled in cookery and swordplay; So’s art has a traditional look, with theatrically gesturing figures, busy crowd scenes, and energetic brushwork.
A vigorously told comic adventure. (Picture book/folklore. 7-9)Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-679-89369-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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