Cute illustrations and lively, relatable characters would be better served by addressing some serious editorial problems.
A touching tale about a boy who learns a timeless lesson.
Debut author Huckleberry introduces us to the Prairie-Paxton’s, a large family of prairie dogs who live a warm, comfortable life in Prairie Dog village. Siblings occasionally squabble but always forgive one another, Mamma is always around to intervene, and Dad splits his time between reading the paper and imparting life lessons to his rambunctious but filially attentive brood. The majority of the narrative is devoted to Pauli, who stays home from school one day and accidentally breaks one of brother John Jr.’s toys. When his parents confront Pauli, he repents and accepts his punishment and a kiss from Mamma before sending a prayer to the heavens. The first thing readers will notice when they open the book are the illustrations; crisp, clean-lined, in black and white, they practically invite beginning readers to add color to them (librarians beware). Pauli and his family are very prettily depicted and accent the narrative in a pleasing fashion. The narrative, however, is often confusing; John Jr. introduces himself as the narrator, but later the narration shifts to third-person limited, describing how Pauli “went straight to John Jr.’s chest” to collect a toy. At several points, Pauli and the third-person narrator even exchange places in the same sentence—“Dad looked around at all our faces and stopped when he got to mine, oh boy I’m done for thought Pauli.” Additionally, beginning readers may find it difficult to follow a narrative that not only shifts point-of-view but also ignores basic grammatical standards; punctuation is oddly placed or frequently absent, resulting in paragraph-long sentences that require multiple rereads to comprehend. Also, misspellings abound, including a curious alternate spelling of the characters’ last name within the text. Still, the story as a whole is endearing, and young Pauli learns a valuable lesson at the end of it.
Cute illustrations and lively, relatable characters would be better served by addressing some serious editorial problems.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-1434906427
Page Count: 24
Publisher: RoseDog
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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