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BALONEY (HENRY P.)

Name: BALONEY (HENRY P.)
Author: Jon Scieszka
ISBN: 0-670-89248-3

by Jon Scieszka & illustrated by Lane Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2001

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It’s “Permanent Lifelong Detention” for Henry P. Baloney, unless the tardy alien can come up with “one very good and very believable excuse” for Miss Bugscuffle. Henry earnestly spins the tale of his near-disastrous trip to school: “I misplaced my trusty zimulis, then I . . . um . . . found it on my deski. But . . . someone had put my deski in a torakku.” The Math Curse (1995) team of Scieszka and Smith combine talents once again, this time to celebrate wordplay in its near-infinite variety. Henry’s story is peppered with words from such diverse sources as Estonian, French, and Inuktitut (there’s a “decoder” in the back). Each time a new word occurs for the first time, it is set off in yellow type—the trick is to decode it through illustrations (“zimulis” clearly applies to a standard-issue Quest pencil, number “ZZ”) and from context (“I jumped smack in the middle of a . . . razzo launch pad.”). Henry himself is an appealingly bug-eyed, freckle-faced green urchin who leaps, fast-talks, and erases his way through a retro-looking space-age world, learning the hard way the importance of linguistic accuracy when he forgets the Astrosus word for “thank you,” using instead the word for “doofbrain.” Clearly intending to do for words what the previous book did for numbers, the illustrations and narrative sizzle along in a madcap rush until the story is brought to an abrupt halt when the humorless Miss Bugscuffle decides to allow Henry to apply his talents to the day’s assignment of writing a tall tale. Carefully—if zanily—adhering to the “three-finger rule” (no more than three unfamiliar words per page), Henry P. Baloney’s story might go a long way toward convincing kids that learning to read is an adventure in itself. If only all pedagogy were this much fun. (Picture book. 6-12)

Pub Date: May 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-670-89248-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE REAL DADA MOTHER GOOSE
by Jon Scieszka ; illustrated by Julia Rothman

- BOOK REVIEW
ASTRONUTS MISSION THREE
by Jon Scieszka ; illustrated by Steven Weinberg

- BOOK REVIEW
ASTRONUTS MISSION TWO
by Jon Scieszka ; illustrated by Steven Weinberg

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FRINDLE

by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Brian Selznick ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1996

With comically realistic black-and-white illustrations by Selznick (The Robot King, 1995, etc.), this is a captivating...

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Nicholas is a bright boy who likes to make trouble at school, creatively.

When he decides to torment his fifth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Granger (who is just as smart as he is), by getting everyone in the class to replace the word "pen'' with "frindle,'' he unleashes a series of events that rapidly spins out of control. If there's any justice in the world, Clements (Temple Cat, 1995, etc.) may have something of a classic on his hands. By turns amusing and adroit, this first novel is also utterly satisfying. The chess-like sparring between the gifted Nicholas and his crafty teacher is enthralling, while Mrs. Granger is that rarest of the breed: a teacher the children fear and complain about for the school year, and love and respect forever after.

With comically realistic black-and-white illustrations by Selznick (The Robot King, 1995, etc.), this is a captivating tale—one to press upon children, and one they'll be passing among themselves. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-689-80669-8

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FRIENDSHIP WAR
by Andrew Clements

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LOSERS CLUB
by Andrew Clements

- BOOK REVIEW
ABOUT AVERAGE
by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Mark Elliott

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CORALINE

by Neil Gaiman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...

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A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.

Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)