Some cats are born to travel, and such a one is Boulevard, who appears at a drive-in one evening, stays with the young narrator and her family for a year, then leaves as the spring floods arrive. In Lyon’s modest text, the child’s attachment to her foundling comes through clearly, as does her wistful acceptance at the end that it’s not in Boulevard’s nature to be a pet. With colored pencils, Johnson produces impressionistic scenes of a semi-rural 1950s setting through which Boulevard, small and dark, pads with composure; she bears and raises a litter of kittens, watches squirrels out the window from a perch on the dryer, shows the dog who’s boss, then moves on, a solitary figure on a curving country road. It’s rare to find such a distinctly drawn animal character without a trace of an anthropomorphic trait, but Boulevard is through and through a cat among cats. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-531-30102-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1998
A deliberate sense of the absurd infuses Kirk’s story of a boy and his dog with great humor and appeal. Young Willy Joe Jehosephat loves gazing at the moon through his telescope, but his parents want him to have a real playmate, a dog. Willy readily agrees—to a moondog, “the perfect pet for me./I watch them through my telescope./They’re real, I guarantee!” After Willy builds a spaceship and is on his way to the Moon, he discovers a stowaway on board, a scrappy Earth mutt that Willy intends to leave in the care of the moondogs after he has made his selection. Once on the moon, Willy establishes contact with an enormous pack of moondogs, but also with a hideous moon man, who threatens to eat Willy. While the moondogs quake and quiver, the Earth mutt gives the moon man a good nip and sends him running. That’s the dog for Willy. Questions of loyalty are obviously raised here, but Kirk’s story allows for the pleasures of the here-and-now as well as acknowledging the dreams attached to distant stars. As always, the palette is robust and retro, with images that are invitingly participatory. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-399-23128-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
This short tour of the jungle from Banks (And If the Moon Could Talk, 1998, etc.) and Bogacki (The Story of a Blue Bird, 1998, etc.) features so many rebuses that it is more of a puzzle than a picture book, but a fun one at that. Bird, Monkey, and Snake—a mildly contentious lot—have their treehouse washed out from under them in a storm. They set off into the great and deep greenery in search of a new abode, with visions of ideal trees dancing in their heads. Utopia they do not find; rather, they find themselves in a series of scary encounters with giant spiders, snapping crocodiles, rude squirrels, and menacing tigers. To their credit, they come to each other’s aid, lending courage and fortitude without fanfare. They do come upon a new tree home, and though a little green frog occupies it, he welcomes them. When their personal quirks again manifest themselves, they are accepted as part of the price of community. Banks keeps the story nimble, never peddling her points with too much fervor. Bogacki, in dappled and deep jungle hues, has fractured abstract images all over the page, giving an impression of the background but endowing the inhabitants with simple, clean forms. A neat cipher of the rebus symbols appears in the border of every spread. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: March 18, 1999
ISBN: 0-374-30729-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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