With this story for younger children, prolific Newbery Medalist George (Cliff Hanger, p. 732, etc.) continues the wilderness saga of young Sam Gribley and his peregrine falcon friend, Frightful, the beloved main characters of the My Side of the Mountain trilogy. In this picture book addition to the series, Frightful has given birth to a particularly independent chick named Oksi, and Sam rescues Oksi when a bird trader steals her nest mates. He takes the chick to his tree house home, where her mother, Frightful, often joins her. The storyline follows Oksi as she grows up, aided when necessary by Sam, who is still living the self-determined life in the forest detailed in the earlier novels. Oksi does things “on her own in her own way,” including staying behind with Sam when the other falcons fly south for the winter and returning to her nest box in the tree house the following spring with a mate. Oksi’s independent and unorthodox ways echo Sam’s own solitary lifestyle, and perhaps foreshadow future stories in which Sam and Oksi will remain allies. As always, San Souci’s (Mustang Canyon, p. 1136, etc.) well-researched, detailed paintings add greatly to the story, offering a concrete visual representation of the beautiful Catskill Mountains setting. (Don’t miss the sweeping vista of the mountain on the dedication page: far below the soaring falcon, Sam’s special tree and the nest box are visible to readers with sharp eyes.) The best use of this volume may be as a “prequel” to the related novels, as a means of introducing children to Sam Gribley’s intriguing world. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-46907-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2002
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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