A group of underachievers engages in a battle of wits with their unsympathetic teacher and emerges triumphant. Sound familiar? Maybe so, but readers have never seen the story play out quite this way before. Fleischman’s characters verge on caricature—the problem-solving narrator is a clever boy nicknamed Einstein, his friend Junkyard collects cast-off items from everywhere and the ominously named Miss Breakbone delights in tormenting her students—and Roberts’s watercolor-and–pen-and-ink illustrations, reminiscent of Edward Gorey’s work, exaggerate their quirky qualities. The plot is deliciously outlandish, featuring an undercover caper complete with a hidden safe, grappling hooks made of paperclips, a classmate who just happens to be a hypnotist and a broken statuette with (real) emerald eyes. Of course the kids succeed—the only real mystery is whether their adventure will find an appreciative audience. Younger kids will likely miss the many references to classic films and other inside jokes, while older readers might have the tragically mistaken impression that this is beneath them. Share with special readers; it’s well worth the effort. (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: June 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7636-2498-9
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2009
Emily Louise is certain that the new girl moving in next door will be simply awful. Working herself into a frenzy (in long passages of text that take the conceit just about as far as it can go), she imagines a terror of a child named Shelley Boo who is a swing swiper, eats nothing but peanut butter, has “drillions and drillions” of baseball cards, and steals Emily’s best friend, Henry. Stone’s exuberant color drawings, filled with whimsical animals and reminiscent of folk art, are less effective here than in What Night Do Angels Wander? (1998). Children will still identify with Emily’s anxiety about a new neighbor and share her relief when she finally does meet the infamous “Shelley Boo,” who is really named Elizabeth. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-81677-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
This latest in an early-reading series from Rylant, featuring the everyday adventures of Poppleton the pig, is as wry and supple as other entries, with the added charm of familiarity. In three stories, Poppleton’s pal Cherry Sue serves as a safety net to the pig’s minor misadventures. The first is a bit of nonsense involving geese flying south; Poppleton invites them in for cookies, but chatting and serving so many geese exhausts him so that he can only utter gibberish when he drops by Cherry Sue’s, and succumbs to a nap. When Poppleton seeks a new winter coat, Zacko the ferret haberdasher insults the pig for his rotundity. Cherry Sue, reminding Poppleton that Zacko is a ferret, after all, with a radically different perspective on big and small, gives her friend a catalog for big and tall pigs. Lastly, Cherry Sue saves Poppleton’s bacon at the Lion’s Club pancake breakfast. If the prose invites a merry, humorous reading, Teague, hitting the illustrator’s equivalent of a perfect stride, provides wonderful scenes that conduct beginning readers through the story. (Picture book. 2-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-84789-9
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
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