Aswim with good feelings and cogent points to ponder.
A gregarious harbor porpoise gains an expanded circle of land-based friends and allies in this sequel to A Dog’s Porpoise (2019).
Into this second wholesome, joyfully splashy episode, the pun-loving author folds both sober concerns about the hazards of human–wild animal interactions and a cautionary subplot about being too quick to judge others. Lars the dog is delighted to dive in with Natalie, his adopted human, to play with finny, friendly harbor porpoise Bangor. But a likewise playful river otter, soon dubbed “Marina” by charmed observers, arrives to replace him as the center of attention. Worse yet (from Natalie’s point of view, anyway), the furry new visitor brings not only a fresh flood of reporters and tourists to sleepy Ogunquit, Maine, but also a standoffish stranger, formerly associated with an abusive roadside animal attraction, who asks ominously sharp questions about exactly where the otter and Bangor’s family pod are most often spotted. As it turns out, the stranger’s motives are actually benign, and no sooner does he voice warnings about how being too comfortable around humans can place wild animals in danger than Bangor is wounded in a collision with a boat and beached. This crisis sets the stage for both a dramatic rescue (in which even Lars and the otter play important roles) and better relations all round. The mildly anthropomorphic creature cast is joined by a human one that’s cued white.
Aswim with good feelings and cogent points to ponder. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781339019833
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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