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WHERE HAS THE MOON GONE?

Name: WHERE HAS THE MOON GONE?
Author: Hiroyuki Arai
ISBN: 978-1-57565-970-1

by Hiroyuki Arai ; illustrated by Yukiko Kobayashi ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2018

Sweet tales, if not quite scientifically rigorous or, for that matter, quite finished off.

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Two curious mice set out to find out what happens to the moon during the day in this Japanese import.

Declaring that the moon must really like them since it follows them around, Chuchu and Chichi decide to find out where it goes when the sun comes up. What at first looks like the object of their search turns out to be a balloon stuck in a tree. Then a glimpse of yellow prompts them to creep into a house and nibble on an unidentifiable “moon-fruit” (presumably a lemon, because it “was very tart!”) and to check out a small bell—which turns out to be connected to the collar of a very large and irate cat! Scurrying back out the window and into the tree, the two mice bite through the balloon’s string and escape into the sky…where they are last seen floating through the nighttime sky and hailing the bright moon. The co-published Can We Go to the Sea? is similarly open-ended, as Chuchu and Chichi are left traveling on the back of a leaping dolphin after floating down a stream and over a waterfall. Like the “moon-fruit,” Kobayashi’s versions of the moon, the balloon, the cat, and for that matter “Ms. Dolphin” don’t look particularly lifelike, but the mice, sporting big pink ears and baggy shorts, are cute, and their dramatic brushes with death at least help to counter the general blandness of the art and the storylines.

Sweet tales, if not quite scientifically rigorous or, for that matter, quite finished off. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-57565-970-1

Page Count: 24

Publisher: StarBerry Books

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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THE ADVENTURES OF HENRY WHISKERS

From the Adventures of Henry Whiskers series , Vol. 1

by Gigi Priebe ; illustrated by Daniel Duncan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 3, 2017

Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.

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The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.

In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).

Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

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COULD YOU EVER WADDLE WITH PENGUINS!?

by Sandra Markle ; illustrated by Vanessa Morales ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 5, 2023

Well worth a waddle.

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An invitation to younger children to act like Adélie penguins.

Morales’ cartoon illustrations alternating with nature photos place a racially diverse group of young folks in cool-weather dress amid flocks of the diminutive penguins. Markle not only offers observations about penguin behavior but also urges readers to squawk, sled, waddle, take “power naps,” “fly through the ocean,” and leap away from predators right alongside them. Sidestepping the topic of reproduction requires an awkward hop. The author’s “Adélie pairs regularly gift [nesting] pebbles to each other” is misleadingly restated in the adjacent box as “When you live with penguins you will gift pebbles to your best friends.” And no grown-up is going to thank her for this cheerfully suggestive line: “Hungry Adélie chicks call nonstop until a parent finds them and feeds them.” Still, such playful suggestions are certainly child-friendly, and the series premise continues to artfully entice audiences to exercise both bodies and minds for insights into the world of nature—readers will especially enjoy the idea of tobogganing down a snowy slope like a penguin. Fans of the creators’ Could You Ever Dive With Dolphins?! (2023) will be pleased. A closing page of additional facts includes aerial images of Antarctica in summer and winter.

Well worth a waddle. (Informational picture book. 6-8)