Nine-year-old Jennifer finds a stray cat on the way back from her piano lesson. She carries the cat home without looking for his owner, adopts the cat without asking permission, and stops practicing the piano to concentrate on winning over her new pet, now called Amadeus. The cat remains skittish and unapproachable until Jennifer practices her Mozart sonata (“for hours day after day”) for an upcoming contest, which wins her the cat’s attention and affection, and of course, a first-place ribbon. Sorenson’s (Hurricane!, 1998, etc.) dark, moody, full-bleed paintings capture the cat’s aloof nature and Jennifer’s serious and rather lonely life with her single father, and perhaps reflect the darker side of Mozart’s music and life as well. A perplexing illustration of Jennifer waiting backstage at the contest shows her in a scanty, slip-style red dress, nervously holding her father’s hand, with a huge empty bed inexplicably taking up the left-hand page. Mozart’s actual life is much more interesting than this story, and there are several biographies for this age group to help introduce his extraordinary life and music to young listeners. (author’s note, suggested reading) (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: April 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8234-1535-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
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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