Fast and furious action guaranteed to keep new readers laughing and turning pages.
Never underestimate the chaotic fun that magic and an angry bouncing ball can create.
When Frog goes to the library, he borrows a book on magic. He then heads to a nearby park to read up on the skills necessary to becoming “a great magician.” Suddenly, a deflated yellow ball lands with a “Thud!” at his feet. Although he flexes his new magician muscles, Frog’s spells fall as flat as the ball. But when Frog shouts “Phooey!” and kicks the ball away, it inflates to become a big, angry ball. The ball begins to chase Frog, so he seeks shelter in the library—and Frog and ball turn the library’s usual calm into chaos. The cartoon chase crescendos. The ball bounces into the middle of a game of chess, interrupts a puppet show, and crashes into walls and bookcases. Staying just one bounce ahead, Frog runs, hides, grabs a ride on a book cart, and scatters books and papers as he slides across the library furniture before an alligator patron catches the ball and kicks it out the library door. But that’s not the end of the ball….Caple’s tidy panels and pastel-hued cartoons make a surprisingly effective setting for the slapstick, which should have young readers giggling. Simple sentences—often just subject and verb—with lots of repetition propel the action. Frog’s nonsense-word spells (“Poof Wiffle, Bop Bip!”) are both funny and excellent practice in phonetics. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fast and furious action guaranteed to keep new readers laughing and turning pages. (Graphic early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4341-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Mischief and mayhem abound where sly cats are involved. Holy chisels, this is fun!
How can one naughty kitty upend an entire construction site?
Cranky the crane truck—last seen in the picture book Cranky Makes a Friend (2025)—and the other vehicles are hard at work building a new playground when they notice that things seem seriously awry. Paint cans have been knocked over, and tiny footprints are everywhere. All too soon the perpetrator, a small gray cat, makes herself known. The kitty quickly attaches herself to Cranky and causes more chaos: scratching the new beams, climbing the ladder on a newly installed slide, napping on the boxes containing the monkey bars, and, worst of all, making off with Cranky’s lunch. But when it’s clear that she enjoys Cranky’s company, our grumpy protagonist softens toward the animal (“It’s hard for me to stay cranky when there’s a purring cat on my head”) and officially dubs her “Bad Cat.” Though labeled an easy reader, this tale relies on potentially complex words such as mystery, whistle, and pickles. Nevertheless, the storyline reaps maximum fun from its adorable trickster, who believably turns Cranky’s mood around. The art remains simple and uncomplicated, reveling in Cranky’s general gloom and annoyance and Bad Cat’s playful exuberance.
Mischief and mayhem abound where sly cats are involved. Holy chisels, this is fun! (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9780063469099
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For fans of Evert and Breiehagen’s Wish Book series.
Anja and her dog, Birki, do their best to get to a Christmas party in a frozen Nordic landscape.
Anja wishes she had a dog sled to harness Birki to in order to get to the party. The next morning, her cousin Erik appears with his dog sled and an offer to take her there. Lost in a blizzard, they encounter talking wolves who take them to a tent where they can spend the night. A baby polar bear named Tiny appears, separated from his mother. The following day takes them all on an adventure through glaciers and fjords, past an ice castle, and finally to Tiny’s mother and to the party. This digitally produced book is illustrated with photographs that capture the Nordic setting. Unfortunately, the overall effect is weirdly flat, with elements awkwardly set together in images that lack depth. A polar bear perches awkwardly on top of oddly scaled pack ice; Anja and Erik spend a night in the ice castle in niches chiseled into the wall, but they seem oddly disconnected from it. The book has an old-fashioned, European feel; the white, blond children’s red caps and traditional clothing stand out against the dim, bluish winter light. But the wooden, overlong text does little to cultivate the magical fantasy feeling that it’s aiming for.
For fans of Evert and Breiehagen’s Wish Book series. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6566-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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