Bertie Badger undertakes a magical mystery tour to recover a cache of missing props. In his heyday, Grandpa Badger was a master magician, known as Gadzooks the Great. Now he lives at the Retirement Home for Elderly Magicians, surrounded by old colleagues. Whenever Bertie visits, Grandpa puts on a magnificent show. One day, Bertie arrives to find Grandpa and his fellow residents disconsolate; each has been robbed of a valuable prop (Grandpa’s rabbit is missing). Bertie turns sleuth to question all the colorful ex-magicians about their losses. Their stories are as wild as their rooms, rendered in a crisp combination of watercolor, pencil and gouache. The mystery’s solution should satisfy readers, who then have the opportunity to go back and find a certain story character hidden in each illustration. Then, Base’s pièce de résistance: The back inside cover opens like a secret chamber to reveal a secret-code challenge, with dials and symbols and letters and a magic button. Base’s rhyming text is undeniably pedestrian, but his tableaux are stylish and packed with witty touches. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8109-7245-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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