The sweetness of succor threatens to suffocate Max the little bear when his friends come to his aid—even though he’s not hurting. Max emerges from his winter sleep to a meadow full of dandelions. They tickle his nose: “achoo!” Mole hears the nasal detonation and rushes off to get compresses: “It’s no fun to have a cold,” he says. Next thing you know, Rabbit is helping apply the compresses and fashioning a leg splint. Badger rubs some sickly green salve into Max’s belly, and the beaver clan heave Max into their pond when they mistake the sweat on his brow, a result of his friends having moved him too close to the fire, for a fever that needs breaking. Finally, Max shouts, “Leave me alone!” and shuffles back to his den for a daylong recuperative nap. The friends square things away the next day: When misunderstandings are carried out with such enthusiasm, no one feels aggrieved. Reider (Snail Started It, not reviewed) gives a lesson in listening—and, for that matter, speaking up—that is much more fun than being told to get the wax out. Slawski’s (Captain Jonathan Sails the Sea, 1997, etc.) goofy art keeps apace of the jet-propelled story, but also manages to display a willowy linework that lends a tender frailty to the work. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7358-1628-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text.
A unicorn learns a friendship lesson in this chapter-book series opener.
Unicorn Bo has friends but longs for a “bestie.” Luckily, a new unicorn pops into existence (literally: Unicorns appear on especially starry nights) and joins Bo at the Sparklegrove School for Unicorns, where they study things like unicorn magic. Each unicorn has a special power; Bo’s is granting wishes. Not knowing what his own might be distresses new unicorn Sunny. When the week’s assignment is to earn a patch by using their unicorn powers to help someone, Bo hopes Sunny will wish to know Bo's power (enabling both unicorns to complete the task, and besides, Bo enjoys Sunny’s company and wants to help him). But when the words come out wrong, Sunny thinks Bo was feigning friendship to get to grant a wish and earn a patch, setting up a fairly sophisticated conflict. Bo makes things up to Sunny, and then—with the unicorns friends again and no longer trying to force their powers—arising circumstances enable them to earn their patches. The cheerful illustrations feature a sherbet palette, using patterns for texture; on busy pages with background colors similar to the characters’ color schemes, this combines with the absence of outlines to make discerning some individual characters a challenge. The format, familiar to readers of Elliott’s Owl Diaries series, uses large print and speech bubbles to keep pages to a manageable amount of text.
A surprisingly nuanced lesson set in confidence-building, easy-to-decode text. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-32332-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Violet Van Winkle is an inventor with a flair for air. Her father manages a junkyard and while other girls play with dolls and tea sets, Violet is busy tinkering with monkey wrenches and needle-nosed pliers building elaborate contraptions, especially flying machines, like her Bicycopter, Pogo Plane and Wing-a-ma-jig. Kids at school make fun of her, but Violet hopes that if she wins an air-show competition with her special plane, The Hornet, they’ll be nice to her. On show day, she carefully calculates her flying time but diverts from her course to rescue a troop of Boy Scouts who have fallen into a river and drops them (literally) at the hospital. Sadly, her heroism makes her too late to enter the air show but her misery evaporates when the mayor presents her with a medal of valor. The comical cover is a grabber: Violet is piloting a homemade plane wearing a helmet and goggles and blowing bubble gum with Orville, her dog’s ears streaming in the wind like her scarf. The cartoon illustrations of watercolor, acrylic and pencil soar with inventive details and angles, e.g. close-up of Violet’s face in midair with bugs on her teeth. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3125-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
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