Talking animals! Costumes! Mysterious symbols! This book has everything except logic. (And who needs that?)
Inspector Billiam Van Hoof may deserve to be an honorary Muppet.
Muppets are always getting hilariously confused—like Traveling Matt, who explored the human world and decided that yellow cabs were fierce creatures who’d learned to sit when they heard “Taxi!” The goat detective at the center of this Québecois graphic novel follows in the same tradition. When a cow disappears from the farm, he decides she’s been kidnapped by aliens. He has evidence. She was wearing a shiny silver dress that resembled a space suit, and the spiral patterns that suddenly appeared on the lawn might have been crop circles. There are competing theories. Pig, for example, thinks the tractor might have broken down and started spinning in circles. But Pig can’t claim to be the “world’s #1 goat detective.” Van Hoof’s ads also say that he’s the “Winner of Best Disguise, goat category, Grade 8 Costume party.” The most literal-minded readers may wonder if he was a goat disguised as a goat. But that actually fits into the book’s goofy, absurdist sense of humor. It includes a raccoon with a mask tied around his face. None of it makes much sense, and, of course, the youngest cows know the solution before the adults. But the loopiness is appealing, and the minimalist, wavery ink drawings are delightfully simple.
Talking animals! Costumes! Mysterious symbols! This book has everything except logic. (And who needs that?) (Graphic mystery. 5-10)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77147-442-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An effort as insubstantial as any spirit.
Eleven-year-old Maria Russo helps her charlatan mother hoodwink customers, but Maria has a spirited secret.
Maria’s mother, the psychic Madame Destine, cons widows out of their valuables with the assistance of their apartment building’s super, Mr. Fox. Madame Destine home-schools Maria, and because Destine is afraid of unwanted attention, she forbids Maria from talking to others. Maria is allowed to go to the library, where new librarian Ms. Madigan takes an interest in Maria that may cause her trouble. Meanwhile, Sebastian, Maria’s new upstairs neighbor, would like to be friends. All this interaction makes it hard for Maria to keep her secret: that she is visited by Edward, a spirit who tells her the actual secrets of Madame Destine’s clients via spirit writing. When Edward urges Maria to help Mrs. Fisher, Madame Destine’s most recent mark, Maria must overcome her shyness and her fear of her mother—helping Mrs. Fisher may be the key to the mysterious past Maria uncovers and a brighter future. Alas, picture-book–creator Ford’s middle-grade debut is a muddled, melodramatic mystery with something of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feel: In addition to the premise, there’s a tragically dead father, a mysterious family tree, and the Beat poets. Sluggish pacing; stilted, unrealistic dialogue; cartoonishly stock characters; and unattractive, flat illustrations make this one to miss. Maria and Sebastian are both depicted with brown skin, hers lighter than his; the other principals appear to be white.
An effort as insubstantial as any spirit. (author’s note) (Paranormal mystery. 7-10)Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20567-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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