A good choice for lovers of animal and friendship stories.
In the middle of a blizzard, a young boy helps an injured prehistoric animal.
This is the story of 10-year-old Henry, who has moved with his mother—his father died when he was small—to a snowy mountain town where it has been hard to make friends. Making matters worse is a concussion he sustained when bullies collapsed a snow tunnel onto him. When Henry finds an injured prehistoric short-faced bear, he names him Yarp and, in secret, nurses him back to health. But what creature injured Yarp in the first place? Henry is determined to keep his new friend safe, but this proves to be a difficult challenge with no assistance from adults. There are two distinct modes for this title, which combines the simple reality of loneliness with the fantasy of befriending extinct animals. Fans of prehistoric animals will gobble up the exciting sections with saber-toothed cats, although the reason these creatures are milling about is not explained. A different rhythm is created around the story elements that address trying to make friends and telling lies, which gets Henry into trouble. Unfortunately, supporting characters are less well developed than the lead, but, ultimately, the story comes to a dramatic and tidy end. Soft pen-and-ink illustrations throughout add charm to the story.
A good choice for lovers of animal and friendship stories. (map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2442-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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