A sweet story about the circle of love and life at an animal sanctuary.
In this illustrated children’s book based on a true story, a three-legged golden retriever settles into a new home.
As the story opens, Tricycle, a dog who lost a leg after a car accident, begins living at an animal-sanctuary farm. He explains that being adopted “means that I am very special. I needed a new home and people that love me very much brought me home to live with them.” Tricycle gets a friendly greeting from Buckaroo, a miniature donkey, and meets other residents; the farm also shelters horses, llamas, alpacas, chickens, other dogs, and honeybees, each adopted for different reasons. Some were injured, like Tricycle; Buckaroo was bullied by other donkeys; and others had parents who couldn’t care for them “even though they love them very much.” (The term “parents” in this book includes both humans and animals.) On the farm, animals get to play, help others (for example, llamas carry hikers’ backpacks), and enjoy visits with elderly people and children, particularly those with special needs or injuries. In real life, debut author Aradi and his wife, Diane, run the Horse Creek Stable Bed and Breakfast to offset the costs of their animal sanctuary near Blue Ridge, Georgia, and the animals depicted here in illustrations and photographs are adopted rescues. Although the subject of injured, abandoned, or sick animals could be upsetting, Aradi keeps the focus on recovery, as Tricycle reassuringly explains that although his leg hurt when the accident happened, it doesn’t anymore, and he gets around just fine on three legs. When a farm animal dies, animals remind each other that he was happy and loved on the farm and that he’s just crossing the “Rainbow Bridge.” At times, the love and sweetness become a little saccharine, but it’s also a relief that the book doesn’t dwell on mistreatment, pain, or sadness. The photos are especially effective at conveying the animals’ liveliness and their visitors’ delight, and readers will likely be grateful that the rescue farm exists.
A sweet story about the circle of love and life at an animal sanctuary.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4808-4206-9
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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