When the “frightfully, frightfully rich” Bobton-Trents get bored with their set and decide they need to meet someone new, they have a child, the absurdly precocious Hubert Horatio. His parents are daffy but loving, welcoming him every evening in their bedroom for a cup of cocoa—which is always a little cold after he makes the trek through the mansion. When strange things begin to happen—they run out of jelly during a party, they see the butler trading a priceless painting for two pints of milk—Hubert quickly realizes that his parents are no longer frightfully, frightfully rich, and takes charge. When his schemes don’t pan out and the family must move to 17b Plankton Heights, they adjust swimmingly—and Hubert’s cocoa doesn’t get cold after the short walk to his parents’ room. Nothing much actually happens, but Hubert’s story is given the patented Child touch, with a dynamic typeface swooping around spiky mixed-media collages. If Hubert lacks the verve of a Clarice Bean, this is still a sweetly offbeat tale whose heart is in exactly the right place. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7868-5485-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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