An enjoyable debut book for intermediate readers, but a stronger edit might have maximized its appeal.
A little girl’s friends and siblings scheme to keep her sleepwalking habit under control in this debut children’s chapter book.
Jennie is finally old enough to go to summer camp, but her mom won’t let her go. She’s afraid Jennie will walk in her sleep, get lost in the woods and be eaten by a bear. However, when the little girl’s sleepwalking habit and talent for painting combine, it attracts the notice of the summer camp’s director and drama teacher, who happen to live in the same apartment building. They convince Jennie’s mother that she will be safe. Meanwhile, Jennie’s siblings and friends, led by an enterprising girl named Trinity (who carries her pet fish’s bowl around with her), formulate plans to keep the sleepwalking Jennie in her cabin at night. Using yarn, duct tape, assorted maracas and “a CD with tranquil nature sounds,” they execute their projects, dubbed “Operation Web,” “Operation Honey Bear,” “Operation Blue Fish” and “Operation Maraca,” which have mixed results. Their adventures eventually involve an unexpected outing for Fin the fish, a game of T-ball and an annoying boy nicknamed “Spaghetti Nose.” Young readers will undoubtedly enjoy spending time with Jennie and friends in this first installment in a series. However, there are some errors in the otherwise clean, readable text, including a few glaring slips: “peaked with curiosity” instead of “piqued” and multiple misspellings of “leeches” as “leaches.” Readers may also find Jennie’s very brief encounter with a denizen of the woods to be an anticlimactic finale.
An enjoyable debut book for intermediate readers, but a stronger edit might have maximized its appeal.Pub Date: July 28, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Cathydia Press
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires.
Little Blue Truck feels, well, blue when he delivers valentine after valentine but receives nary a one.
His bed overflowing with cards, Blue sets out to deliver a yellow card with purple polka dots and a shiny purple heart to Hen, one with a shiny fuchsia heart to Pig, a big, shiny, red heart-shaped card to Horse, and so on. With each delivery there is an exchange of Beeps from Blue and the appropriate animal sounds from his friends, Blue’s Beeps always set in blue and the animal’s vocalization in a color that matches the card it receives. But as Blue heads home, his deliveries complete, his headlight eyes are sad and his front bumper droops ever so slightly. Blue is therefore surprised (but readers may not be) when he pulls into his garage to be greeted by all his friends with a shiny blue valentine just for him. In this, Blue’s seventh outing, it’s not just the sturdy protagonist that seems to be wilting. Schertle’s verse, usually reliable, stumbles more than once; stanzas such as “But Valentine’s Day / didn’t seem much fun / when he didn’t get cards / from anyone” will cause hitches during read-alouds. The illustrations, done by Joseph in the style of original series collaborator Jill McElmurry, are pleasant enough, but his compositions often feel stiff and forced.
Little Blue Truck keeps on truckin’—but not without some backfires. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-27244-1
Page Count: 20
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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