Bedard’s satirical picture book debut features his poster duck, who, with his many cloned brethren, figure here as the product of the Colossal Duck Factory. It’s a prosperous concern operated under the stern gaze of a gang of alligators; one egg rolls loose off the vast conveyor belt system and lands at the foot of an alligator worker. Rather than being snapped up, literally, the little duck is gently carried home in the alligator’s lunchbox. There, friendship blooms and the ugly truth is revealed: Colossal Duck Factory cranks out the fowl for patÇ and kabob. The duck concocts a plan (get fit and fly south) to liberate his kind, and they are all free before winter, including the renegade alligator. It is good to see a duck tinkering with destiny, and it is grand to see him turn a potentially depressing ending into a happy one, even if his friend—dreaming of chicken, perhaps apropos of a sequel—makes the other ducks a shade nervous. (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-22847-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
The second installment in this spirited series is a hit.
A new baby coming means Ryan has lots of opportunities to grow love.
Ryan has so much to look forward to this summer—she is going to be a big sister, and she finally gets to go to church camp! But new adventures bring challenges, too. Ryan feels like the baby is taking forever to arrive, and with Mom on bed rest, she isn’t able to participate in the family’s typical summer activities. Ryan’s Dad is still working the late shift, which means he gets home and goes to bed when she and her older brother, Ray, are waking up, so their quality daddy-daughter time is limited to one day a week. When the time for camp finally arrives, Ryan is so worried about bugs, ghosts, and sharing a cabin that she wonders if she should go at all. Watson’s heroine is smart and courageous, bringing her optimistic attitude to any challenge she faces. Hard topics like family finances and complex relationships with friends are discussed in an age-appropriate way. Watson continues to excel at crafting a sense of place; she transports readers to Portland, Oregon, with an attention to detail that can only come from someone who has loved that city. Ryan, her family, and friends are Black, and occasional illustrations by Mata spotlight their joy and make this book shine.
The second installment in this spirited series is a hit. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0058-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Sweetly low-key and totally accessible.
Billy Miller’s second-grade year is quietly spectacular in a wonderfully ordinary way.
Billy’s year begins with his worry over the lump on his head, a souvenir of a dramatic summer fall onto concrete: Will he be up to the challenges his new teacher promises in her letter to students? Quickly overshadowing that worry, however, is a diplomatic crisis over whether he has somehow offended Ms. Silver on the first day of school. Four sections—Teacher, Father, Sister and Mother—offer different and essential focal points for Billy’s life, allowing both him and readers to explore several varieties of creative endeavor, small adventures, and, especially, both challenges and successful problem-solving. The wonderfully self-possessed Sal, his 3-year-old sister, is to Billy much as Ramona is to Beezus, but without the same level of tension. Her pillowcase full of the plush yellow whales she calls the Drop Sisters (Raindrop, Gumdrop, etc.) is a memorable prop. Henkes offers what he so often does in these longer works for children: a sense that experiences don’t have to be extraordinary to be important and dramatic. Billy’s slightly dreamy interior life isn’t filled with either angst or boisterous silliness—rather, the moments that appear in these stories are clarifying bits of the universal larger puzzle of growing up, changing and understanding the world. Small, precise black-and-white drawings punctuate and decorate the pages.
Sweetly low-key and totally accessible. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-226812-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
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