Apples remain a staple of autumn lessons in the early elementary grades, offering many opportunities for thematic integration into the content areas. Stories about apples are always in demand in both school and public libraries, and Ruelle’s (April Fool!, 2002, etc.) latest entry in her Harry and Emily easy reader series addresses that demand. Tiger-striped kitten Emily and her big brother Harry go on their first visit to their grandparents’ house by themselves, with plans for picking apples and baking apple pies (though Emily repeatedly declares she doesn’t like apples). They pick apples in the orchard with their grandparents, sort the apples by size, and in a humorous midnight kitchen raid, eat their grandfather’s prepared piecrusts. The next day the understanding grandparents help Harry and Emily make more piecrusts and the actual pies, and the young cats find the baking experience, of course, “easy as apple pie.” Though the story doesn’t impart any significant information about apples, it does address the nervous feelings children have when spending the night away from home and the mild trouble caused by eating something without permission. Ruelle’s naïve style of illustration is cheery and pleasant, just like her stories. One tiny worm in the apple: Grandma loves the color yellow, and there is a reference to a vase of yellow flowers that are clearly orange. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2002
ISBN: 0-8234-1759-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2002
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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