A winner of a sequel, just the ticket for lovers of Roald Dahl.
When word gets out that their hyena family’s succeeded in passing as human, the Bolds’ semidetached home in suburban London is besieged by animal refugees hoping to learn their secret.
First to move in (emerging from the toilet) is Sheila, a nearly full-grown crocodile, fed up with life in the sewers. Fifi, a French poodle intent on a career as a chanteuse, is followed by a homeless, pregnant cat, a turtle, and 15 sea gulls. Roger, an agoraphobic sheep, hopes to find less “outdoorsy” work, ideally as a nanny. Space is soon at a premium, even after Mr. McNumpty, the (disguised) grizzly next door, takes in some of the overflow. The cheery Bolds put up with chaos and overcrowding, but after two nervous racehorses fleeing their new owner, Dodgy Dean, join the household, Fred and Amelia take steps to equip residents with skills to manage on their own. Lessons on table manners, walking on hind legs, toileting, speaking and reading, plus career and wardrobe advice ensue, along with group therapy and emergency drills (evading discovery by humans). Despite progress, the racehorses, proving tough to disguise, are recaptured by Dodgy Dean to be sold for horsemeat. Luckily, the Bolds have a rescue plan. Interspersed with Fred’s groan-inducing jokes, liberally dotted with potty humor, aided and abetted by the evocative illustrations, the tale avoids didacticism, delivering its message of tolerance, inclusion, and kindness with irresistibly quirky, anarchic glee.
A winner of a sequel, just the ticket for lovers of Roald Dahl. (Fantasy. 7-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5124-1022-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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