Amusing but perhaps spread a bit too thin.
A wounded pet vulture helps Buzz, a soon-to-be fifth-grader, connect with new human friends after the pet lights up the life of a special needs child and her family.
Buzz calls to order a meeting of the Goodwill Vultures Club, consisting of one human, two dogs and Roberta the vulture. Conveniently, Buzz’s dad—whom Buzz lives with following his parents’ divorce—happens to be an ornithologist who received a permit to keep Rob. The club is interrupted by PeeWee, Buzz’s African-American best friend, who lives next door. The boys’ dialogue is sometimes dated: “And what are you doing having a club meeting with your animals? That’s just weird,” Peewee says. “Whatever, corndog.” “Your granny is a corndog,” PeeWee shoots back. When Buzz takes Rob to a Special Populations basketball game (think Special Olympics for local kids) to help cheer on Jason—Buzz’s vain, wheelchair-bound teenage brother with cerebral palsy—a threatening older boy yells that the “ugly bird” is scaring the athletes, and a lady volunteer boots Buzz and Rob from the building. The next day, and somewhat unbelievably, Buzz takes Rob to another Special Populations event at an indoor pool, where he gets to know Caroline, an outgoing classmate. Next, PeeWee tells Buzz about “Animal Heroes,” a community contest for pets who have helped people. Buzz then gets called in to the community center to discuss an incident at the pool. Expecting bad news, Buzz is surprised—though even young readers might not be—by the good news that Rob delighted an autistic girl named Chrissy at the pool. A TV news story about how the vulture drew Chrissy out of her shell makes Buzz and Rob local favorites to win the competition. (The reporter keeps calling Rob a “most unusual pet vulture”; Buzz humorously wonders what a usual pet vulture would look like.) When Buzz and Rob next encounter the aforementioned tough, older boy—the brother of a “brooding” classmate, Mark—his attitude has completely changed because Chrissy happens to be his cousin. In the end, the good outcome for Chrissy and her family overshadows the actual outcome of the Animal Heroes contest. Though this novel is stuffed with too many storylines and plot contrivances, its unusual avian hero and overall good humor will appeal to many middle-grade readers.
Amusing but perhaps spread a bit too thin.Pub Date: May 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1935711261
Page Count: 122
Publisher: Peak City Publishing, LLC.
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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