An adventure full of puns—a little mind-bending and a lot of fun.
In Klama’s chapter book, a cool cat goes undercover.
Kid has just arrived at summer camp when he spots something strange fall from the sky with a parachute. As he’s about to go looking in the woods for it, he bumps into his old camp counselor, Kelli. The two of them discover that the Unidentified Falling Object is, in fact, a cat—and not just any cat, but a cat who can type. Kid and Kelli, along with the rescued feline, are whisked away to the White House: It transpires that this cat is named Clawed and is a special agent who looks after the president’s grandchildren, including Lucy, who has come to take the trio to Washington, D.C. The president thanks Kid and Kelli for returning Clawed and gives them a special assignment: to infiltrate the cat-stealing ring that have taken cabinet members’ cats and find out if there’s a mole inside the Cat Intelligence Agency. This short chapter book includes a few full-color comic-like illustrations by Levine of the animal characters and the humans, including Kid (who has auburn hair and blue eyes), and Kelli (who has electric blue hair and green eyes). Kid can’t pass up a good pun and makes time for kidding around, even in the face of danger: “We were headed to Washington DC for a debriefing. I never had one of those before, so I packed extra underwear (‘de’ briefs, get it?).” In the course of his cool and fun narration, there are tender moments when Kid’s soft side emerges, displaying his growing affection for “cute” Clawed and his respect and admiration for Kelli. There is an easy balance between dialogue between the characters and Kid’s descriptions of events and observations. As the adventure amps up, so does the pace of the prose, with chapters ending on cliffhangers that make the book hard to put down.
An adventure full of puns—a little mind-bending and a lot of fun. (Ages: 7-9, fiction, chapter book, illustrated)Pub Date: March 29, 2023
ISBN: 9798223190301
Page Count: 66
Publisher: Use Your Words
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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