Plainly unable to stay out of mischief for long, Stanley and his canine buddies embark on a third escapade after Stanley’s Party (2003) and Stanley’s Wild Ride (2006)—this one with cosmic overtones. Slouching away from his picnicking human family, Stanley joins Nutsy, Alice and Gassy Jack in sniffing out an unattended ham sandwich. They find it in a small rowboat that proceeds to carry them down the river and out onto the scary sea. Could they be on their way to the end of Outside? What will they find there? A fence, undoubtedly, because “sooner or later you always come to a fence.” Once again, Bailey endows her characters with believably doggy thought processes, and the pop-eyed, floppy-eared figures in Slavin’s textured paint-on-gesso scenes positively exude enthusiasm, if not intelligence. Soon a “fence” looms up, in the form of a freighter’s towering hull; the dogs are rescued, fed steak and sausage until they can barely move and then rowed back to land. The tale of how they found pooch paradise quickly becomes a legend throughout dogdom: “No dog has ever found that fence,” Bailey concludes, “but they think about it all the time.” The spiritual metaphor may need some explaining to children, but Stanley’s waggish appeal will win over readers young or grown. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-55453-193-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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