by Satoshi Kitamura ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000
giggle. Silly good fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
A common fantasy that children will immediately recognize is the hook in this offbeat picture book.
Late one night, Nicholas tells us even before the title page, "an old lady in a pointed hat" turned up in his room, said her spell, and disappeared. In the morning, Nicholas’s mom wakes him up and gets him off to school, but the pictures show the boy with his head in the cat bowl and sure enough, he’s become his cat, Leonardo. He begins to enjoy cat things—he knocks over a shelf, takes a nap, and tussles with a few other cats and the neighborhood dog. When Nicholas comes home from school, it’s really Leonardo, fighting with his shoes, stalking the goldfish, and finding the litter box "irresistible." A distraught mom calls the doctor, who decides everyone is overtired; that night the old lady returns, apologizes for having the wrong address, and cat and boy become themselves again the next day. The illustrations, with their flat colors and nervous edges, resemble Japanese anime, and the endpapers with their ghostly cat heads are fabulous. Whom the old lady meant to ensorcell accords the final
giggle. Silly good fun. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 6, 2000
ISBN: 0-374-34906-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000
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by Keith Baker & illustrated by Keith Baker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1999
Baker (Big Fat Hen, 1994, etc.) engages in more number play, posing ducklings in every combination of groups, e.g., “Splashing as they leap and dive/7 ducklings, 2 plus 5.” Using a great array of streaked and dappled papers, Baker creates a series of leafy collage scenes for the noisy, exuberant ducklings to fill, tucking in an occasional ladybug or other small creature for sharp-eyed pre-readers to spot. Children will regretfully wave goodbye as the ducks fly off in neat formation at the end of this brief, painless introduction to several basic math concepts. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-292858-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
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by Keith Baker ; illustrated by Keith Baker
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by Jerry Pallotta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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by Jerry Pallotta & Sammie Garnett ; illustrated by Vickie Fraser
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