An excellent, engaging tale for a broad range of ages.
Eddie is a vibrantly green bug who lives in Ferny Creek Elementary School. Could such a tiny critter become a hero?
After his aunt Min goes missing on a trip to the school’s library, he sets off to rescue her. But it turns out that she doesn’t need rescue quite as much as their school library does. With the librarian on maternity leave, the superintendent brings in wicked, archetypal Ms. Visch (“rhymes with squish”) as her replacement. Her only concern is to get rid of the beloved, welcoming library and replace it with an austere testing center. Since Eddie and Aunt Min can read, the library and its familiar works hold a special place in their hearts. Eddie begins to leave notes on the spines of some of their favorite books, hoping to sway Ms. Visch to make a better choice. Instead, she’s enraged. The children, believing the notes are the work of a much-loved volunteer who died (smiling) in the library, launch an effort to rescue the place, not even knowing why it’s in jeopardy. Bugs are fully rounded characters; people (referred to as Squishers) are just sketched in this bug’s-perspective third-person narrative. Rich with references to familiar tales and accompanied by realistic illustrations by Newbery honoree Jamieson, this effort will charm library lovers and would make a fine read-aloud, as brave, endearing Eddie navigates one terrible peril after another.
An excellent, engaging tale for a broad range of ages. (Fantasy. 5-12)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-244093-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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