Fans of the first book will be thrilled to encounter more fact-filled fun.
Dr. Glider travels around the world to advise her patients and instruct her readers.
The bespectacled sugar glider introduced in Eat Your Rocks, Croc! (2020) dispenses more advice, fast facts, and interesting science concepts to 15 new patients here. The doctor’s travels begin and end in Canada, but in between she dives into oceans, flies to Australia, climbs trees and even mountains, visits islands in southeast Asia, the Galápagos, nature reserves in Africa, and the seashore on Nantucket. Spread by spread, each animal is introduced with a given name and its geographical habitat before it poses a question that allows Dr. Glider to reveal a curious fact. The sloth is turning green; that’s algae that grows on its back because it moves slowly and seldom. Blue dragons (a kind of sea slug called a nudibranch) eat the tentacles of the stinging man-of-war to make themselves venomous. The text is simple and short, fitted into speech bubbles. Each spread includes additional facts and concepts in boxes along the right. Keating has a knack for finding intriguing information and the skill to impart it with humor. Oswald’s engaging illustrations feature creatures with expressive, anthropomorphic faces. Dr. Glider has been provided with wonderful accessories: a device for recording the kookaburra; earphones for hearing the infrasonic sounds of the okapi; a safari helmet for exploring the zebra’s savanna. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fans of the first book will be thrilled to encounter more fact-filled fun. (glossary, cast list) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-23989-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts.
What terrors lurk within your mouth? Jasper Rabbit knows.
“You have stumbled your way into the unknown.” The young bunny introduced in Reynolds and Brown’s Caldecott Honor–winning picture book, Creepy Carrots (2012), takes up Rod Serling’s mantle, and the fit is perfect. Mimicking an episode of The Twilight Zone, the book follows Charlie Marmot, an average kid with a penchant for the strange and unusual. He’s pleased when his tonsils become infected; maybe once they’re out he can take them to school for show and tell! That’s when bizarre things start to happen: Noises in the night. Slimy trails on his bedroom floor. And when Charlie goes in for his surgery, he’s told that the tonsils have disappeared from his throat; clearly something sinister is afoot. Those not yet ready for Goosebumps levels of horror will find this a welcome starter pack. Reynolds has perfected the tension he employed in his Creepy Tales! series, and partner in crime Brown imbues each illustration with both humor and a delicate undercurrent of dark foreshadowing. While the fleshy pink tonsils—the sole spot of color in this black-and-white world—aren’t outrageously gross, there’s something distinctly disgusting about them. And though the book stars cute, furry woodland creatures, the spooky surprise ending is 100% otherworldly—a marvelous moment of twisted logic.
Extraordinary introductory terror, beautiful to the eye and sure to delight younger horror enthusiasts. (Early chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781665961080
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
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