A kids' tale that features a vivid storyteller who’s also a wise teacher.
Belenky’s (Capt’n Bob’s Adventures in Child Psychology, 2015, etc.) new children’s book charmingly relates the adventures of Milly, a black Labradoodle with a flair for persuasion.
These five tales, perfectly pitched for middle-grade readers, begin with a first-person (or rather, first-dog) origin story. Readers learn about where Milly was born and about her human “parents,” Mother Mary and Capt’n Bob. Milly is smart—so smart, in fact, that she attends a local law school and receives a degree. This helps her defend herself from accusations of stealing tennis balls, and her argument convinces the judge, a miniature schnauzer: “I say that if a ball is thrown to someone, whether dog or person, it becomes a gift, fair and square,” says Milly. “It is then his or hers to chomp on. That is how the world works.” At the end of this tale, questions for the “Intelligent Reader” appear: “Does Milly really steal tennis balls?” What makes a dog “good” or “bad”? “If you needed a lawyer, would you or would you not hire Milly? Why/why not?” Not only are these queries amusing, but they also encourage youngsters to appreciate the differences between species. In addition, the book helps readers appreciate pets’ quirky personalities. The use of Milly’s voice instructs in lively ways, as she says early on: “Capt’n Bob writes short stories about me that are mostly lies or exaggerations at best.” Of herself, though, she says that she’s “famous everywhere for my open mindedness.” At one point, for instance, Milly desires a pet of her own, so she goes to an elementary school to see if there are any children on sale. The book is full of humor and worldly awareness; a tale about Milly’s distrust of squirrels, for example, ends on a compassionate note when she visits an elderly pair of them at their home to sip some fermented pine sap. The final story, about why wolves (and sometimes dogs) howl at the moon, looks at the mysteries of mortality in a gentle, magical manner.
A kids' tale that features a vivid storyteller who’s also a wise teacher.Pub Date: April 5, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 49
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A delightfully captivating swatch of autobiography from the author of Kiss. Kiss, Switch Bitch and many others. Schoolboy Dahl wanted adventure. Classes bored him, there was work to be had in Africa, and war clouds loomed on the world's horizons. He finds himself with a trainee's job with Shell Oil of East Africa and winds up in what is now Tanzania. Then war comes in 1939 and Dahl's adventures truly begin. At the war's outbreak, Dahl volunteers for the RAF, signing on to be a fighter pilot. Wounded in the Libyan desert, he spends six months recuperating in a military hospital, then rejoins his unit in Greece, only to be driven back by the advancing Germans. On April 20, 1941, he goes head on against the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Athens. On-target bio installment with, one hopes, lots more of this engrossing life to come.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0142413836
Page Count: 209
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
PERSPECTIVES
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