A deliberately farfetched uproar about the consequences of Mortimer the raven's coming home one night with the taxi-driving father of little Arabel Jones. Mortimer, who croaks "Nevermore" at appropriate intervals, eats stairs and traffic lights and the escalator at the tube station. He is kidnapped (or "flyjacked") by two masked robbers who are terrorizing the town, but traps the pair later in the same tube station's lift. He roller-skates through the-multi-story car park, gets stuck in Auntie Brenda's chimney and costs Mrs. Jones two jobs, but is — inexplicably — so clear to Arabel who pulls him about in her little red wagon that only his comforting presence saves her from death. The scenes of parental hair tearing and throat clutching build up to an epidemic of hysteria when Mr. and Mrs. Jones go off to the Furriers' Freewheeling Ball, Arabel and Mortimer and babysitter Chris Cross step out to the milk machine (which so amuses the raven that Arabel continues to pour change — won from the slot machine — into other machines for gumdrops, cigarettes, photographs, you name it), and their absence from home sets the Joneses, their fellow revelers and the fire and police departments running in circles to a confusion of rumors about deadly gas, poisoned cheese and a gang of gorillas from Swanee Arabia. There is enough clutching for hilarity here that some of this is bound to be funny, but the family's indulgence of the tiresome bird is hard to credit and their distraction is too often just mechanically madcap.
Pub Date: May 10, 1974
ISBN: 0152060944
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1974
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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