Brown’s debut offers young readers insight into the pleasures of having a dream . . . and going for it. Spurred by the splatter of goose poop on his jacket, Penguin decides that it’s time to take a higher view—and so he gathers a trio of other flightless birds, inspires them to help, and after some unfortunate failures, takes off into the sky beneath a giant rubber balloon. The flight brings everything he and his companions had hoped, from a chance to taste the clouds and to see the world from above, to an opportunity to perfect the technique of “target pooping.” Smoothly modulated colors and odd looking but precisely modeled figures give the airbrushed acrylic illustrations a sophisticated sheen that makes the storyline, and a plethora of visual gags, all the funnier. Whether airily waving a worm sandwich, or frantically signaling (guess how) a group of earthbound geese far below for help when storm clouds suddenly threaten, dapper Penguin exudes a capable air that carries him triumphantly over the rough spots. Children will happily fly with him. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2005
ISBN: 0-316-11038-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005
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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 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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A lad finds a penguin on his doorstep and resolutely sets out to return it in this briefly told import.
Eventually, he ends up rowing it all the way back to Antarctica, braving waves and storms, filling in the time by telling it stories. But then, feeling lonely after he drops his silent charge off, he belatedly realizes that it was probably lonely too, and turns back to find it. Seeing Jeffers’s small, distant figures in wide, simply brushed land- and sea-scapes, young viewers will probably cotton to the penguin’s feelings before the boy himself does—but all’s well that ends well, and the reunited companions are last seen adrift together in the wide blue sea.
Readers who (inexplicably) find David Lawrence’s Pickle and Penguin (2004) just too weird may settle in more comfortably with this—slightly—less offbeat friendship tale. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24503-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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