In this story, “first told in Julie’s Wolf Pack [1997],” a little Eskimo boy is given a wolf’s name: Amaroz, after the leader of the wolf pack that had saved his lost and starving older sister. “The wolf pack’s noble black leader had shared his family’s food with her.” One day his sister Julie comes home with two wolf cubs that are sick and hungry. Amaroz loves and cares for one of the cubs and names him Nutik. Julie warns her brother: “ . . . do not come to love this wolf pup. I have promised the wolves we will return the pups when they are fat and well.” But Amaroz does fall in love with the cub. The two become inseparable, and when the cub is grown and it is time to return to the wolves, Amaroz first tries to hide him, then reluctantly lets him go. Amaroz returns home, “His heart broken after all.” But then, Amaroz finds the wolf cub has returned to him to be part of the human family, forsaking the wolves. Rand traveled to Barrow, Alaska, to capture the people and landscapes in the story in watercolor and pencil. His pictures of Nutik are, of course, dreamy, and his focus on the boy and wolf help to indicate the isolation of the terrain. One interesting technique is a wash across the top of many of the pictures, which serves as a link between scenes and when in red indicates the 24-hour day. Night scenes of the dancing wolves, snow, and stars are particularly effective. As a young introduction to the Julie stories, this has great appeal, but it stands alone as a heartwarming story of a boy and his dog (or, in this case, his wolf). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-028164-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
“Question: Who’s the luckiest hamster in the world? Answer: ME!” Readers will probably agree.
A scary foray into the wide (indoor) world cures a hamster of any yen for adventure in this variation on the creators’ Memoirs of a Goldfish (2010).
Seymour the hamster is quite comfy in his pen, thank you—until lured into engineering an ingenious escape by Pearl the cat’s teasing promises of a staircase made of sunflower seeds and a sunroom filled with yogurt drops. But Pearl turns out to be a “big, fat liar,” and Seymour’s adventure turns into a frantic flight not only from her, but also from Buck the dog and, most frightening of all, a roaring monster called a “Hoover.” The arrangement of Seymour’s chatty exposition into 14 “Nights” is a clear contrivance—he supposedly spends Nights 11, 12 and part of 13 cowering under the sofa before the watchful Pearl falls asleep and he can make a break—but the pacing is suitably breathless. His hamster-ish outlook is effectively conveyed in his narrative and in Bowers’ low-angle cartoon views of a chubby-cheeked, bright-eyed pet who, though once susceptible to temptation, clearly enjoys the familiar comforts of wheel and water bottle—to which he is returned following a last-second rescue by his human yogurt-drop supplier, Little Girl.
“Question: Who’s the luckiest hamster in the world? Answer: ME!” Readers will probably agree. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-58536-831-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
Damp.
A good friend can change your life.
Duck loves settling down with a hot beverage when he reads, but that’s the only liquid for him—he doesn’t like getting wet. As a result, he dresses in a yellow rain slicker constantly and spends rainy days inside with the shutters drawn. This solitary existence continues until one night when a particularly bad storm creates a hole in Duck’s roof. When he sets out to investigate repairing it, he comes face to face with a lost frog on his doorstep. Even though Frog loves the water, the two develop a friendship through a shared love of reading. Frog eventually finds his way home, but the two have bonded, and Duck invites Frog to join him as a new roommate. Although the story’s soft cartoon illustrations are amusing—Duck peddling his bicycle in his slicker, boots, and sou’wester will elicit smiles—they can’t save the superficial message of the story. Duck’s phobia is never directly addressed, but once Frog moves in permanently, the rain slicker vanishes, so there’s a bit of a visual resolution. Books addressing new friendships are always needed, but the characters need to be developed to attract and inspire readers. This pale imitation of Oliver Jeffers’ Lost and Found (2006) doesn’t have the depth needed to carry the message. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-15.8-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Damp. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8917-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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