A promising series opener that will leave readers primed for more charming, small-town, canine adventures.
Pups publishing? Yes, and also reading, operating machines, and solving problems.
Gizmo, a big-city dog, finds his life drastically altered when his human, Granny—a gray-haired, bespectacled, scooter-riding journalist—moves to the countryside to write a memoir, taking him along. Gizmo, who hates “getting his paws wet,” is nervous about making new friends and living in a village named Puddle. When Jilly, an Irish wolfhound, introduces Gizmo to all the dogs in the area, the first problem is solved. Jilly has her own problem—her pups are about to be sold off. After homes have been found for Jilly’s puppies, another dilemma is introduced: Jilly can’t read. That difficulty is also quickly resolved. The final pages see the dogs publishing the first issue of The Daily Bark and provide an obvious setup for future books in the series. Illustrations on every spread may help youngsters transitioning to a longer novel format, but text and pictures do not always match. British terms (like tucked in to mean eating) and references to antiquated equipment (a Polaroid camera and a typewriter) invite young American readers to broaden their perspectives. Gizmo’s dislike of water is handled inconsistently; he’s miserable when he falls into a water trough but doesn’t object when Granny gives him a bath.
A promising series opener that will leave readers primed for more charming, small-town, canine adventures. (Illustrated text. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0881-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Everything that readers have come to love about the Elephant & Piggie books is present—masterful pacing, easy-to-follow,...
Can Gerald and Piggie’s friendship withstand the friendly overtures of Brian Bat?
When Snake informs Gerald that Piggie is playing with Brian Bat, he is at first complacent. Brian is “nice,” he observes; Snake concurs—after all, he says, “Brian is my Best Friend!” Their mutual reflection that Piggie and Brian “must be having a super-duper fun time!” turns, however, to paranoia when they realize that if their best pals “are having that much fun together, then… / …maybe they do not need us” (that last is printed in teeny-tiny, utterly demoralized type). Gerald and Snake dash/slither to put an end to the fun. Their fears are confirmed when the two new buddies tell them they have “been playing BEST FRIEND GAMES!”—which, it turns out, means making drawings of their respective best friends, Gerald and Snake. Awww. While the buildup to the friends’ confrontation is characteristically funny, there’s a certain feeling of anticlimax to the story’s resolution. How many young children, when playing with a new friend, are likely to spend their time thinking of the friends that they are not playing with? This is unfortunate, as the emotions that Gerald and Snake experience are realistic and profound, deserving of more than a platitudinous, unrealistic response.
Everything that readers have come to love about the Elephant & Piggie books is present—masterful pacing, easy-to-follow, color-coded speech bubbles, hilarious body language—except an emotionally satisfying ending. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-7958-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
Visually marvelous, like its subject—with a text more poetic than expository.
This latest collaboration between Fleming and Rohmann explores the elusive giant squid.
Fleming focuses as much on lingering unknowns as facts, introducing uncertainty in a poetic prologue: "Who are these giants of the dark seas?… // It is a mystery. // After all, how can you know / about an animal hidden from view? / You must rely on clues, / as scientists do...." Rohmann's full-bleed oil-on-paper pictures convey the squid's enormous size by capturing only its parts. Its two tentacles, "curling and twisting and thirty feet long," undulate both within the picture plane and outside it. After a barracuda’s foiled by squid ink, dramatic double gatefolds open, revealing that even a yardwide page can’t fully contain this creature. Sea depths are dark teal, purpled, or blackened; gorgeously crisp white text type casts its own light. Anatomical details elicit Fleming's most assertive descriptions. As tentacles enfold a fish, "they latch on with powerful / sucker-studded clubs. / ... / Suckers ringed with saw-like teeth / that rip into skin and hold on tight." There’s a startling close-up of "the beak. / Bone-hard and parrot-like." Poetic compression occasionally results in obfuscation. Accounting for the squid's huge eyes, Fleming elides bioluminescence (effectively, jellyfishes’ early-warning system of approaching predators), discernible by the squid only as “a shimmering outline.” The creature’s potential color changes are mentioned speculatively, without further qualification.
Visually marvelous, like its subject—with a text more poetic than expository. (labeled diagram of giant squid, author’s note, bibliography, web resources, suggested books) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59643-599-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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