Illustrator Nash flies solo with a plush-boiled whodunit set amidst the shadowed cardboard cartons of “Los Attic.” Responding to the pleas of a big blue teddy bear with a voice “as thick and smooth as catsup,” Flopsy Flips Rabbit, a.k.a. Tuff Fluff, P.I., hares off to find out why bookish Duckie has lost all of his words except “Quack.” As it turns out, the stuffing in Duckie’s head has taken a powder—but a trip into hostile Beantown (“There was no love lost between the beanbags and stuffs”), a flash of inspiration, and a bit of surgery later, Duckie’s right as rain, and reciting Alice in Wonderland to a mixed crowd of admirers. Nash populates his moonlit mean streets with brightly colored, new-looking or neatly repaired toys, including a lagomorphic gumshoe with an eyepatch and exaggeratedly long, rumpled ears. Neither these pictures nor the overlong narrative capture the snappy tone of David Wisniewski’s Tough Cookie (1999), Margie Palatini’s Web Files (2001), or similar takeoffs, but still young readers will never regard their castoff beanie babies in quite the same light again. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-7636-1882-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2004
Categories: CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
King and Kayla, the detective duo, are back to solve the mystery of Kayla’s missing tooth.
King, the happy and hilarious golden retriever narrator, anxiously awaits the return of his human, Kayla, who’s been at school for “eleventy seven hours. Maybe even eleventy seven days.” When Kayla finally arrives home, she has big news: She’s lost a tooth! Kayla is excited to use her class’s tooth-fairy pillow that night, but, alas, her tooth is missing! Though King discovers the pillow smells like turkey sandwiches (his favorite food), just like Kayla’s teeth, her tooth is nowhere to be found. The pair checks the car, the last place Kayla saw the tooth, and King finds lots of crumbs (more of his favorite foods) but no tooth. And so it goes, and Kayla must go to bed with an empty pillow. In the morning, Kayla finds a dollar, a dog treat, and a note from the tooth fairy even though her tooth wasn’t there. But when King notices the pillow still smells like turkey sandwiches, he’s found the final clue. Each page includes illustrations that are often humorous and highlight the affection between King and Kayla, who is depicted with brown skin and Afro-textured hair.
This funny, endearing addition to the series will delight early readers, especially dog lovers. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-56145-880-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The creator of Aunt Eater and Inspector Hopper opens a new easy-reader series featuring an even less conventional sleuth. Two specters haunting a house in the aptly named town of Ghostly are frightened by mysterious, un-ghostly clackings and clickings. Enter Dirk Bones, skeletal investigative journalist for the Ghostly Tombs. Properly outfitted in trench coat and green fedora, Bones sets out into a stormy night on a successful investigation that takes him from creepy basement to spooky graveyard, and includes encounters with a terrified werewolf, a vampire Emeril wannabe and other typical town residents—all easily recognizable but decidedly non-menacing figures in the cartoon illustrations. A burbling cauldron of “bat foot stew with crispy worm brains” is but one of the shivery delights that await emergent readers in this not-too-creepy caper. Stay tuned for sequels. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-073764-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
Categories: CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER
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