Told and illustrated with equal spareness, this tender Japanese tale will please young readers who find the fate of the oysters in “The Walrus and the Carpenter” discomfiting. Having left her “mean and feisty” years behind, an old witch not only can’t bring herself to pour the bagful of small, gently snoring clams she’s brought home into her boiling miso soup, but when they wake and begin to cry, she offers to take them back to the shore. Buying train tickets for so many, however, seems impossible—until the clams begin to sing “with pretty little voices, like tiny popping bubbles,” charming enough contributions from passersby to finance the trip. By the end not, only have the faces that Kojima puts on the clam shells in her tiny, delicate line drawings gone from dismay to delight, but the habitual frowns on the witch and her bad-tempered cat have likewise changed to smiles. All live happily ever after on the beach, “surrounded by the pretty voices of the clams, the gentle sound of the waves, and the warmth of the sun.” A feel-good episode if ever there was one. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-933605-12-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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