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 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-06-027720-3 A broadly comic, slapstick mystery. Seymour Sleuth is called to Borneo where Dr. Irene A. Tann (an orangutan) is searching for the Black Flower of Sumatra, which will cure hiccups. But her quest is being sabotaged’sand in the sugar bowl, knots in the underwear—and threatening notes are arriving. The intrepid Seymour and his faithful assistant and photographer Abbott Muggs search for clues and interview the other members of the camp: a reporter, a local guide, and Dr. Tann’s assistant. Among the clues: chocolate smudges on the notes, and a pin with someone’s initials. Seymour solves the mystery, accompanies the band through the monkey’s maze where they find the Black Flower and another surprise. All the characters are animals and the text is in Sleuth’s notebook printing, with photographs by Muggs attached along with realia like the map of Borneo and their plane tickets. It’s very lightweight, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and gives readers a funny first taste of some of the well-loved elements of mysteries. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-027719-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
A book that takes into account what beginning readers need’simple words, uncomplicated sentence structure—but provides little original in the way of plotting and action to keep them involved. In a sequel to The Biggest Pest on Eighth Avenue (1997, not reviewed), Mary Lou and her friends are sure that Leroy, an adult who has the reputation of having once been a really bad kid, is hiding stolen money in his backyard. So they set about finding clues. They sneak into his house and find various mysterious objects, but everything is explained when they meet Leroy, now a fire marshal who trains tracking dogs. The formula is too familiar; new readers will already have encountered similar events in such picture books as Roni Schotter’s Captain Snap and the Children of Vinegar Lane (1993). (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 15, 1998
ISBN: 0-8234-1350-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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