Eeney meeney miney moe, catch this series before it goes! (Adventure. 7-9)
Two kids get up close and personal with some great works of art in this first in a new series.
Tiger Brooks is used to his little sister’s fantastical stories. So when the top-hatted orange pig she describes turns out to be not only real, but a next-door neighbor, Tiger enlists the help of his kooky new friend, Luna, to investigate. It turns out the pig works for the reclusive painter Viola Dots. Years ago a magical picture frame swallowed up her only son, and she’s searched for him in artworks ever since. When Tiger’s tinkering starts the magic up again, he and Luna are sucked into a reproduction of Henri Rousseau’s Surprised! or Tiger in a Tropical Storm, hungry predator and all. After meeting and failing to rescue Viola’s son in this adventure, the series is set up for the intrepid pair to infiltrate other classic paintings in the future. Backmatter provides information on the real Rousseau and his life. Oliver keeps the plot itself snappy and peppy. While there are few surprises, there’s also an impressive lack of lag time. This is helped in no small part by Kallis’ art, which goes from pen-and-ink drawings to full-blown color images once the kids cross over into the painting. Tiger is a white boy, and Luna is a dark-haired Latina.
Eeney meeney miney moe, catch this series before it goes! (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-448-48087-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When evil, oversized alien rabbits land at Dingdale Elementary chool (the “S” has fallen off the sign so often that custodian Fuzzy Dustin refuses to fix it any more), it’s up to young Hercules Smith and his slobbery pooch Sheldon to save the Earth—or at least the student body—from being transformed into carrots. Luckily (or maybe not), a pair of the titular Wuv Bunnies, heavily armed with kisses and truly toxic jokes, arrive from the Outers Pace Galaxy to help out. Elliott and Long milk this premise for all it’s worth, dishing up a Captain Underpants–style mix of text and wild cartoons—the former well-stocked with authorial asides, the latter filled with big-toothed bunnies sporting antennae and high-fiving each other after each gag. Capped by a gratuitous barrage of extra jokes (“What did the duck say when she bought some lipstick? Just put it on my bill. HA! HA! HA! HA!”), this is all perfectly pitched to its audience and guaranteed to garner groans from the grown-ups. (Fantasy. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8234-1902-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2008
A bland introduction to the pirate life manages to suck all the fun out of the subject. Likely to please only overprotective parents, this field guide tucks such provisions as, “The crew is your family, and you must look after them and love them,” into the Pirate Oath. It also claims that pirates “only steal from people who’ve got more than they really need,” and insists that male and female pirates “respect each other equally.” Similarly, though the watercolor illustrations are replete with hooks, peglegs, eye patches and like standard gear, many of the pirates on display sport inoffensive personae like “The Smiley Pirate,” “The Hunky Pirate” and even a grandmotherly “Pirate Captain’s Mum.” The translator lets a lookout shout “Land Ahoy!”—which only children who have never read another pirate book will accept. Production standards are equally careless, as a word is misspelled in the Pirate Vocabulary list (the “Pirat” flag), and there’s a blank space on the treasure map where a coded message is supposed to be. Shelve in Davy Jones' locker. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-84-937814-8-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cuento de Luz
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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