A charmingly illustrated, slyly funny tale of a family pet in the United Kingdom.
A dog solves the mystery of a missing sock while introducing young readers to British English terms.
In this debut picture book, Greer unveils Grumpmuffin, a wiry-haired canine who’s the most sensible member of the Winterbottom family. He watches from his perch on the bed as Mr. Winterbottom becomes frustrated over a missing argyle sock while getting dressed. Though the rest of the household is unsympathetic (“There were times when Mr. Winterbottom felt like his entire family was conspiring against him”), Grumpmuffin decides to investigate after everyone leaves for the day. In a series of colorful, Edward Gorey–style illustrations, he searches the house and locates the sock, which has become part of an arts-and-crafts project that highlights the great love that the members of the Winterbottom family have for one another. The illustrations rely on subtle details to remind readers of the differences between Grumpmuffin’s English home and typical American ones. In one scene, for example, a cricket bat leans against a bedroom wall; in another, a washing machine, compact and tucked under the kitchen counter, is clearly a European model. A sly humor extends throughout the text and illustrations, as when a “warren of dust bunnies” is depicted as a group of small rabbits playing poker in a corner or when Grumpmuffin admits that he “had always been a sentimental old thing.” The author highlights words not often found in American English (“loo”; “whinging”) and defines them in a glossary at the end of the book, although some phrases, such as “Knees Up Mother Brown” and “bits of tat,” may leave readers wishing for even more comprehensive definitions. In the end, Greer open-endedly leaves readers wondering about Mr. Winterbottom’s reaction to his repurposed sock.
A charmingly illustrated, slyly funny tale of a family pet in the United Kingdom.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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