The latest entry in a long-running series aimed at short attention spans gives record-keeping and -breaking a quick once-over. Accompanying short answers to questions about extreme weather (“Which hurricanes blew the hardest?”), earth science (“Which river is the longest?”), animals (“Which shark is a gentle giant?”), human records (“Can you jump like a flea?”), astronomy (“Which planet is king?”) and other topics, the illustrations mix unexceptional but brightly colored painted scenes done in a realistic style with small, goofy cartoons. An index provides a veneer of respectability, but so much of the content is either inane (“Where do angels fall?” You guessed it: Angel Falls) or oversimplified (“only 4.4 people live in each square mile of Mongolia”) that this is best used for quick, casual dips only. (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6291-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
Flatly opposed to the idea of paying dues, clubmates Leo, Phoebe, Miranda, and Marcus find other ways to raise money, then opt to spend it worthily in this followup to Cool Crazy Crickets (2000). With 14 hard-earned dollars to show for watching Marcus’s horribly active little brother, pet-sitting a neighbor’s nervous Irish wolfhound, and selling lemonade, the four friends argue about whether it should go for snacks or other frills. But when the one-eyed stray cat that has been strolling through Elliott’s easy-reading chapters turns up in the Cricket clubhouse looking decidedly unwell, they quickly agree that a trip to the vet is in order. In freely sketched watercolors, Meisel (How to Talk to Your Cat, 2000, etc.) sets his multicultural quartet into a summery suburban neighborhood, and gives the cat, both before and after being nursed back to health with a week of TLC, an appealingly raffish look. Elliott partly devalues the Crickets’ sacrifice by rewarding them with free treats from the local snack shop, but thoughtful younger readers will still get the story’s point. (Fiction. 8-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7636-1116-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
Dedicated to Samuel Clemens, who “promised never to let dull facts get in the way of telling a true story,” this rousing mix of fact and fancy fleshes out the lives and adventures of several half-legendary harbingers of the Westward Expansion. Glass (Bewildered for Three Days, 2000, etc.) pairs dappled scenes of buckskin-clad roughnecks battling bear, bad weather, and bands of eagle-feather-wearing Indians with narrative accounts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the growth and decline of the fur trade, and selected individual exploits of the likes of John Colter, Jim Bridger, Mike Fink, and Jim Beckwourth. Admitting that he “adjusted a few particulars” in his retellings, the author downplays but doesn’t ignore the, as he phrases it, “less than tender sensibilities” of these men toward animals, native peoples, and each other, giving young readers a rare chance to cross back and forth over the boundary between historical fact and—that other kind. (maps, bibliography, author’s note) (Nonfiction/folklore. 8-10)
Pub Date: June 12, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-32555-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
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