Though there’s a suggestion the story is meant as fable, Nutley’s adventure stands alone as a satisfying animal fantasy.
When young Nutley’s parents are attacked and killed by the violent members of an invading “inferior race” living nearby, Nutley must leave his babyhood home and learn to make it on his own.
Nutley is a red squirrel, while the assailants are gray squirrels—brutish, feisty and larger than red squirrels. His escape leads him to refuge in the town dump, where he encounters rats and sea gulls and negotiates several brushes with death while hanging on to his innate kindness. Violence and death, and the threat of both, are constants in the form of aggressive gray squirrels, nighttime predators and the swift-moving People Carriers (which roll over and crunch a gray squirrel or two at one point). Nutley longs to be Dangerous, as he characterizes the gray squirrels, yet at nearly every turn, another quality is demanded of him—something that one of his new friends calls courage. Conversational, nature-oriented sections titled “This you should know” address readers before each chapter. Monroe’s black-and-white drawings help to make this small world familiar, while Yolen charmingly creates a believable interior life for Nutley, complete with squirrel appetites and the worries of a youngster just a bit unready for survival.
Though there’s a suggestion the story is meant as fable, Nutley’s adventure stands alone as a satisfying animal fantasy. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-1234-7
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
Another child-friendly nature book from the team that offered Animals in Motion (2000), this one has added bite. With no graphic violence, but a deliciously close attention to toothy detail, Stephens paints oversized, in-your-face views of a gaping crocodile, a python swallowing an entire deer, a lamprey's stuff-of-nightmare mouth, and other creature features that will rivet browsers—of the human sort, anyway. Hickman contributes notes and diagrams on the various kinds of teeth, jaws, beaks, tongues, and baleen sported by herbivores, carnivores, and carrion-eaters, adding a look at diverse strategies for taking in nourishment and water. Directions for low-tech demonstrations will help children understand food webs, how a frog's tongue works, a housefly's decidedly icky eating habits and like topics. Seasoned with well-chosen examples and scientific terms, this clear, non-technical study will afford plenty of food for thought—though the lack of a book or Web site list will give readers hoping for leads to further information a bone to pick with the author. (index) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-55074-577-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
Obi the gerbil’s latest adventure is an uncomplicated, entertaining romp with a lesson about the trouble that follows when...
In this third volume to feature Obi, an endearingly flawed little gerbil who is always getting herself into trouble, the pampered pet accidentally hitches a ride to school.
Obi shares her owner Rachel’s love with two other pets, a golden retriever named Kenobi and another gerbil named Wan, but she is secure in the knowledge that she’s Rachel’s favorite. Or is she? When Rachel writes an essay about her favorite pet, the troublemaking mouse Mr. Durkins plants a seed of doubt in Obi’s mind, and she becomes obsessed with discovering the subject of Rachel’s essay. The determined gerbil winds up stranded in Rachel’s backpack, eventually ending up at school, where she is left overnight. After all the kids have gone, Obi engages in silly hijinks with an assortment of school pets who make her pass the I’m-Really-Not-the-Principal’s-Spy Test, but ultimately, she gets what she’s after—a good look at Rachel’s homework assignment—and learns her true place in the little girl’s heart. Short chapters, interspersed illustrations and the funny narrative voice make this series a good choice for readers just wandering into chapter-book territory.
Obi the gerbil’s latest adventure is an uncomplicated, entertaining romp with a lesson about the trouble that follows when we allow others to stir up doubt about our most cherished relationships. (Animal fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: June 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3854-6
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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