A recasting of Beauty and the Beast where the characters are rabbits—and the Beast is a very large dog. The story line is fairly traditional, even to the reasons Beauty—here, Bunny—and her family must move to the country (her father loses and then regains his merchant fleet), and the telling is a bit on the twee side. What is astonishing here are the pictures, voluptuously illustrated like Arcimboldo, Fantin-Latour, and Fragonard rolled into one. The pages are covered in perfectly painted flowers and adornments of every description, gardens, interiors, and hearthsides. Bunny herself and all the other characters are bedizened with silks, velvets, and ornament, and little frog-elves in courtly dress appear to comment by their presence on the action. The emphasis is silly rather than serious, and it is immensely satisfying to peer at the pages to pick out the odd butterfly, bunch of grapes, or other sumptuous element. The doggy Beast does indeed become a rabbit prince, and a tailpiece shows one of the frogs reading the tale to a passel of bunny babies. Of course. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-80468-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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Determination and hard work prepare Judy Moody as she tests her knowledge of book trivia in a battle of the books.
Judy, little brother Stink, and some familiar classmates from their second and third grade classes are the Virginia Dare School Bookworms, the book quiz champions who will be representing the school in the First Ever Book Quiz Blowout at the Starlight Lanes Bowling Alley. Nervous about their competition—Braintree Academy’s Bloodsucking Fake-Moustache Defenders and their star player, Mighty Fantaskey—the team is taking every possible moment to read: on the bus, during karate class, and even at the dinner table. Stink makes a cape out of scribbled-on sticky notes on the books he’s read, and Judy tries her hand at speed-reading. Enthusiasm for reading is never lost even as the children prepare for the contest. A diverse gathering of familiar titles is referenced throughout, matching this series’ reading level (all titles mentioned are compiled in the backmatter). Building excitement propels the story up through the competition to an ultimately satisfying ending. Reynolds’ well-placed watercolor, tea, and ink illustrations break up text, allowing necessary breaks for bridging readers. Aside from teacher and coach Mr. Todd, who is black, and Mighty Fantaskey, who seems to be a child of color, all characters appear white.
Another win for Judy and her friends. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0484-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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