A fitting addition to the annals of doggy courage.
A stirring tribute to an abandoned dog who became a Coast Guard hero.
Inspired by true stories about a dog she actually met in the 1960s, Polacco’s dramatic tale features two nautical rescues in which Vera—an unofficial (at first) mascot on what is now called Coast Guard Island in the San Francisco Bay area—played significant, lifesaving roles. Midsized, flop-eared, and wholly winning, Vera is surrounded in the ink-and-marker illustrations with adoring sailors of diverse skin tone who eagerly adopt her as a puppy in an early illustration, though her reception by the commander is not so assured. With her nautical heroics she eventually even wins over the base’s crusty, cigar-chomping “Ol’ Man.” The author herself comes into view years later when, as a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals worker, she witnesses the old dog’s last days and formal military burial beneath a memorial of crossed anchors. Though some, maybe all, of the dialogue is invented (“ ‘Cast off, mates—lives hang in the balance!’ he bellowed”), a closing photo taken on a recent visit to the island attests to the memorial’s existence, and Polacco’s account of her search for it makes a mildly suspenseful coda.
A fitting addition to the annals of doggy courage. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4227-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
Some readers may wonder why Claude needs to give “the high wire a once-over with a damp cloth,” but surrealists probably...
Children waiting for an absurdist chapter book need tap their toes no more.
“Claude’s best friend,” readers are told, “is Sir Bobblysock. He is both a sock and quite bobbly.” (Oddly, the sock in the illustration, though striped, looks quite smooth.) Readers should be warned: The Claude series is full of jokes that are clever but extremely bewildering. This may be a book for a rarified audience. It’s a story about a dog who’s compulsively neat. When he goes to a golf course, he fills in the holes and picks up the untidy balls littering the grass. Fans of Amelia Bedelia will find this sort of thing hilarious, but some of the jokes are positively surreal. Amelia Bedelia’s socks never danced “a high-stepping jig.” The climax has everything a child could want in a book. Claude hangs from a tightrope, throws custard pies and is shot out of a cannon.
Some readers may wonder why Claude needs to give “the high wire a once-over with a damp cloth,” but surrealists probably won’t complain. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-56145-702-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Scrappy song lyrics, energetic illustrations and plenty of potty humor keep the hilarity high for reluctant readers.
A new chapter-book series about do-gooder thieves kicks off with a monkeynapping.
While most parents want their children to be law-abiding citizens, bacon-loving Billy Crook and his inventor twin sister, Jillian, are home-schooled by their professional thief parents to keep their covers safe and practice the skills of the “trade.” Billy’s easygoing, quick-paced narration describes the blunders he and Jillian face when they decide to secretly do good deeds. In their first “caper,” the twins go in disguise to a clean-up day at the zoo. When their parents follow them and steal a monkey in the process, Billy and Jillian attempt a series of unsuccessful yet humorous schemes to return the monkey without their parents’ knowledge. In the second, simultaneously publishing story, Dog Gone! (978-1-60684-397-0; 978-1-60684-510-3 paper), the pair faces a similar scenario when they decide to raise money for an animal shelter by earning the money through a bake sale. Once again, their parents steal an animal, this time Poochie Smoochie, the poodle star of a popular TV show. A concluding twist in the twins’ true identities saves the second volume from being just a rehash of the first and sets the scene for more titles.
Scrappy song lyrics, energetic illustrations and plenty of potty humor keep the hilarity high for reluctant readers. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-60684-396-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Egmont USA
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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