This kicks off a series, and readers will be glad to know that this piggie and pooch will pair up again.
Who’s stealing animals? The “pet-tectives” are on the case!
Horace Homer Higgins III is a most dignified Boston terrier, and he’s not happy that his human Eleanor is moving him from the city to the Homestead. It’s hard enough to keep her safe in town. Then she announces he’s about to get a new sister…and that sister turns out to be a pig! Bunwinkle was the runt of her litter, but what she lacks in size she makes up for in enthusiasm, and she loves living on the farm. All the animal characters are, well, characters: Smith and Jones are horse brothers who’ve seen it all; Smokey is a sardonically nasty stray cat; there’s also a bevy of excitable chicks, alpacas, goats, and troublesome ducks. On one of several trips to the vet (farms can be hazardous), Horace and Bunwinkle start to piece together a local mystery. Animals are disappearing. Is it the vets? Is it Smokey? Aliens? (That’s what Jones thinks.) The chase is on, but can they puzzle it out before one of them gets snatched? Gardner’s debut tale of mystery and (eventual) bucolic bliss brings to mind Joan Carris and Noah Z. Jones’ Bed & Biscuit series. Graduates of the Mercy Watson books will also feel right at home. Mottram’s occasional illustrations just add to the charm. Human characters are default White. (Final art not seen.)
This kicks off a series, and readers will be glad to know that this piggie and pooch will pair up again. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-294654-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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