bookshelf

WHOSE EARS ARE WHOSE?

Name: WHOSE EARS ARE WHOSE?
Author: Lana Jordan
ISBN: 978-1-933830-01-8

by Lana Jordan ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 24, 2008

Young preschoolers won’t mind this fun story’s occasional imperfections.

bookshelf

A rhyming picture book whimsically portrays stuffed animals separated from and reunited with a key body part.

The narrator David’s stuffed-animal collection has, courtesy of his younger sister, just had its members’ ears plucked off. The animals, distraught and unable to help themselves on account of their stuffed heads, cry out. Our good-natured hero tries to remedying the situation by attempting a number of possible critter/ear combinations, all of which are rejected by the animal ensemble. The day is saved when David, in the role of stuffed-animal surgeon, reaches for the duct tape. After an extensive paean to the wondrousness of duct tape, he gives each animal ears that turn out to be satisfactory, even when they aren’t the auditory organs the animals are meant to have. The satisfied toys collapse into sleep, and the story ends with a light-handed moral message on the virtue of helping friends in need. The reader then has the opportunity to correctly match each animal to its appropriate appendage. Told mainly with an ABAB rhyme scheme, the story flows nicely–meaning that the few aberrations from the rhyme and the occasional sacrifice of syntax are jarring. Not that Jordan sacrifices flow for the sake of anatomical correctness–she counts the spikes of an antler as ears. The story is complemented by crayon like drawings against a white background, accentuating the book’s fanciful tenor and child-friendly approach to narration. The lack of resolution with regard to David’s pesky sibling may leave some justice-oriented readers feeling unsatisfied.

Young preschoolers won’t mind this fun story’s occasional imperfections.

Pub Date: July 24, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-933830-01-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

bookshelf

FUDGE-A-MANIA

by Judy Blume ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1990

bookshelf

A well-loved author brings together, on a Maine vacation, characters from two of her books. Peter's parents have assured him that though Sheila ("The Great") Tubman and her family will be nearby, they'll have their own house; but instead, they find a shared arrangement in which the two families become thoroughly intertwined—which suits everyone but the curmudgeonly Peter. Irrepressible little brother Fudge, now five, is planning to marry Sheila, who agrees to babysit with Peter's toddler sister; there's a romance between the grandparents in the two families; and the wholesome good fun, including a neighborhood baseball game featuring an aging celebrity player, seems more important than Sheila and Peter's halfhearted vendetta. The story's a bit tame (no controversies here), but often amusingly true to life and with enough comic episodes to satisfy fans.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990

ISBN: 0-525-44672-9

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
GOING, GOING, GONE! WITH THE PAIN & THE GREAT ONE
by Judy Blume & illustrated by James Stevenson

- BOOK REVIEW
COOL ZONE WITH THE PAIN & THE GREAT ONE
by Judy Blume & illustrated by James Stevenson

- BOOK REVIEW
SOUPY SATURDAYS WITH THE PAIN & THE GREAT ONE
by Judy Blume & illustrated by James Stevenson

bookshelf

TOUCHING SPIRIT BEAR

by Ben Mikaelsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 2001

bookshelf

Troubled teen meets totemic catalyst in Mikaelsen’s (Petey, 1998, etc.) earnest tribute to Native American spirituality. Fifteen-year-old Cole is cocky, embittered, and eaten up by anger at his abusive parents. After repeated skirmishes with the law, he finally faces jail time when he viciously beats a classmate. Cole’s parole officer offers him an alternative—Circle Justice, an innovative justice program based on Native traditions. Sentenced to a year on an uninhabited Arctic island under the supervision of Edwin, a Tlingit elder, Cole provokes an attack from a titanic white “Spirit Bear” while attempting escape. Although permanently crippled by the near-death experience, he is somehow allowed yet another stint on the island. Through Edwin’s patient tutoring, Cole gradually masters his rage, but realizes that he needs to help his former victims to complete his own healing. Mikaelsen paints a realistic portrait of an unlikable young punk, and if Cole’s turnaround is dramatic, it is also convincingly painful and slow. Alas, the rest of the characters are cardboard caricatures: the brutal, drunk father, the compassionate, perceptive parole officer, and the stoic and cryptic Native mentor. Much of the plot stretches credulity, from Cole’s survival to his repeated chances at rehabilitation to his victim being permitted to share his exile. Nonetheless, teens drawn by the brutality of Cole’s adventures, and piqued by Mikaelsen’s rather muscular mysticism, might absorb valuable lessons on anger management and personal responsibility. As melodramatic and well-meaning as the teens it targets. (Fiction. YA)