In the past 50 years, very little has changed for the residents of 32 Windsor Gardens. They still live with a bear from Darkest Peru who happens to go by the name of Paddington. Moreover, Paddington is just as curious and prone to getting himself into trouble as he has always been. One minute he’s been arrested for not having a driver’s license, the next he’s given the local travel agent seven kinds of fits. Though most of the stories in this latest Michael Bond title are independent of one another, the last few tales concern a visitor from Paddington’s past and a lovely surprise for the whole family. Interior pen-and-ink illustrations by R.W. Alley act as the perfect complement to Bond’s infinitely lovable bear. Even alongside such modern details as cell phones and the London Eye, Paddington’s stories retain a timeless charm that will satisfy old fans and surely lure in new ones. Children’s literature in its finest, purest form. (Fiction. 5-10)
Pub Date: June 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-147364-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Guaranteed fun for young readers, who will eye their classroom pets with some suspicion in the future
Classroom pets have a wild night in the halls of Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary.
George “GW” Washington the hamster has languished in the prison that is second grade for over three months, and he finally has everything he needs to break out. After the students are gone, he escapes and frees his old buddy Barry the bunny, held in first grade…but then they must brave the worst cellblock, kindergarten, to free their old pal Biter the guinea pig. However, Biter has gone through a slight transformation thanks to exposure to daily happy singing and a shared learning community; she does yoga and calls herself Sunflower now. Just as they are strategizing their escape from the building, Harriet, one of the fourth-grade white mice, informs them that upper-grade pets rule the school. With the muscle (and questionable appetites) of Lucinda the fifth-grade snake, Harriet captures the trio and relocks them up. Can they escape and save the children from Harriet’s evil scheme? Graphic novelist Jamieson aims for a younger crowd than Roller Girl’s (2015) with this slightly sarcastic and totally loony tale of friendship and the quest for freedom…which turns out to not be what GW thought it would be. Refreshingly, she doesn’t rely on such tired graphic tropes as extra-long eyelashes to set her female characters apart.
Guaranteed fun for young readers, who will eye their classroom pets with some suspicion in the future . (Graphic fantasy. 6-10)Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-106-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-87175-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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