The mean streets may have never looked so clean, but it still takes pluck and courage to survive them.
For a New York City mouse, hazards abound—but also delicious discoveries.
Garland knocks the rougher edges off an incident featuring an ambitious rat and a whole slice of pizza that was caught in a viral 2015 video clip. Sporting a tough-guy chip on his diminutive shoulder (“I am a mouse. So what?”), this nonetheless cute, fuzzy forager has four legs but anthropomorphically scurries around on two. He pithily tallies his many foes as he roots through piles of garbage, snatches a roll from a table of elegant diners, takes shelter from a swooping hawk in a used pizza box, and finally drags the cheesy treasure he finds therein down subway steps and through a crowd of oblivious commuters to present it to a squad of nestlings. “Daddy!” they exclaim. Along with downsizing his protagonist and giving him a family to feed, Garland does such an awful job of depicting urban grime that even the worst food waste looks not just yummy, but artistically displayed. Still, though the setting may be caricatured, the thoroughly diverse human cast, even its Asian members, is not, and he offers an affectionate ankle-level view of the city’s general hurly-burly.
The mean streets may have never looked so clean, but it still takes pluck and courage to survive them. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3761-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Demonstrating the many rewards of Right Action, Little Croc fends off his importunate friends and resolutely hauls a large coin purse he’s discovered under a bush to the police station—past an oh-so-tempting shoe store, a lemonade vendor, a charity worker and Murdock, a menacing punk. In rushes the owner a little later to rescue a prized locket and then give Little Croc everything else! Unconcerned that it’s a purse, and covered in pink flowers to boot, the delighted reptile adopts the fashion accessory and divides the cash inside into “spend,” “share” and “save” piles. He then treats himself to a lemonade and a coveted pair of red cowboy boots, makes a donation to the charity, buys gifts for all his buddies (and even Murdock), then goes home to drop the last coin in his piggy bank and dream of saving for a matching cowboy hat. Placing her all-croc cast in an upscale village setting and tucking in some visual jokes (the lemonade comes from “Croc Monsieur’s” café), Finlay gives the episode a bright and breezy look. Along with making worthy points about the benefits of honesty, modeling responsible financial behavior and even somehow managing to keep Little Croc from coming off as a goody-goody, she introduces a young hero who is refreshingly oblivious to gender expectations—bravo. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5392-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
Still no more than a rough draft despite being buffed up by an editor, Freeman’s son and a second illustrator, Jody Wheeler, this sketchy tale of a Washington, D.C., squirrel rooting through autumn leaves for acorns buried “last summer” should have stayed in the trunk. Crossing a broad avenue and scurrying through an open gate—“which,” as the wooden text has it, “is something not every visitor can do, you may be certain”—Earl the squirrel scampers about the Mall, past other squirrels and a group of children planting trees. In what passes for the climax, a parade turns out to be only a temporary obstacle to his final sortie, as the same children hold up their hands so he can make the leap back across the street and home to a “Well done, my dear,” from his wife. Perky squirrels and several familiar D.C. monuments in the backgrounds give the broadly brushed art some visual interest, but not enough to compensate for the stiff prose and negligible plot. A disappointment, particularly after the likewise posthumous but far more finished Manuelo the Playing Mantis (2004). (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-670-01083-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
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