A buoyant seafaring escapade.
Anchors aweigh, play-mateys!
Raymundo’s metanarrative opens with Captain Herman and avian first mate Mr. Plume in hot pursuit of their titular pal; Moby Duck proves a worthy adversary in a game of nautical hide and seek, and besting him won’t be an easy feat. But readers anticipating an immersive, swashbuckling epic will find those expectations soon subverted when a shift in perspective reveals that the seemingly open seas are actually confined to a porcelain tub, and these sailors are really bath toys at the destructive mercy of a sudsy, light-skinned tot, who’s a stand-in for (and doppelgänger for) Captain Herman; the title character is a cheery-looking rubber ducky. The brief tableaux that follow offer more punny patchwork than plot, introducing (and quickly resolving) trials like the Forest of Eye-Stinging Bubbles and the Wall of FAH-SET. Herman alternatively appears as intrepid mariner and splashy bather, at once the cause of and good-natured victim of imaginative chaos. And juvenile Melville-heads need not fret—the infamous whale winked at throughout makes an appearance, too. Raymundo is at his best when realizing moments of chuckle-inducing self-awareness—of which there are many—but while his premise is strong, his execution is somewhat stymied by uneven pacing. This flaw is forgivable, given the narrative’s mimicry of imaginative bathtime play, but it yields a less satisfying conclusion than more traditional adventure narratives. Nonetheless, hesitant bathers will appreciate the creative inspiration.
A buoyant seafaring escapade. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593531341
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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PERSPECTIVES
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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