Nick and Nora they’re not, but Wallace and Grace are a good team for the younger set.
A new chapter-book series for young mystery fans kicks off.
Wallace and Grace are partners in the Night Owl Detective Agency. Wallace is a fairly typical brown owl, but Grace is adorned with a shiny gold necklace and a red-and-white bow. “Grace liked to use big words.” Her vocabulary is extensive, including “quandary,” “investigate,” and “courageous,” and is explained in the text. Occasional puns may make adults groan, but kids will laugh: “Wallace and Grace always found out whooo-done-it!” Their first case involves Edgar the rabbit. He sees a ghost who makes spooky noises in the garden. The owls listen to his description, make notes, and hold a brief conference to decide whether to take the case. The two use their owlish abilities, things that Edgar can’t do, like spying things in the distance and twisting their heads around to look in both directions. They soon realize that the ghost is a sheet from the clothesline, stolen by Mother Cat to “keep her kittens cozy,” and the spooky noise is the mewing of the kittens. The mystery is simple, and the male and female partners invite interest across a broad readership. The language is accessible, and full-color cartoonish illustrations, created with pencil and Photoshop (a mix of whole-page and smaller vignettes), throughout the book are a change from many black-and-white chapter books.
Nick and Nora they’re not, but Wallace and Grace are a good team for the younger set. (Mystery. 6-8)Pub Date: May 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61963-988-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Music takes center stage and bullies get properly pun-ished in this hearty and wholesome howl.
In this picture book from singer Parton and co-author Perl, a small French bulldog goes to Nashville, joins a band, fends off bullies, and meets one of the queens of country music.
Promising at the outset that this is just the first of a series of adventures starring her beloved “god-dog,” Parton goes on to hit all the conventional thematic notes. Inspired by musical dreams, Billy heads for Nashville. After a “ruff day” in which being scorned by big dogs for not being a “true muttropolitan” leaves him feeling “lower than a stick on the ground,” he eats some flowers, strums some tunes, forms a band with a trio of little dogs, and, after sending the big pooches packing, trots out a “pawsome” performance at the “Battle of the Bow-Wows.” And from there it’s on to the Grand Ole Opry to hear his big-haired favorite singer warble out lines from her song “Makin’ Fun Ain’t Funny,” about celebrating differences rather than mocking them. Haley slips those lines, along with references to “Jowlene” and “I will pawlways love you,” into painted scenes of an all-dog-or-Dolly cast set against swirls of music and simply drawn backdrops. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Music takes center stage and bullies get properly pun-ished in this hearty and wholesome howl. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780593661574
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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