Bob, a dog looking for a life on the straight and narrow, stumbles on a solution without being unfaithful to his no-good burglar of an owner.
Bob and Rob are crooks: Rob as that’s his stock in trade, and Bob as he is Rob’s dog, and Bob’s mother told him to always be faithful to his owner—no matter what. Outside of being an accomplice in crime, Bob’s a good pooch: He likes to iron clothes and help old ladies across the street. Rob is a lousy crook, though: He gets distracted by mothballed dresses, chamber pots and dust brooms. Then they see through a window the haul of a lifetime: hundreds of wrapped presents. But when they get the loot home, it turns out to be a bunch of toys for children. Bob is crestfallen. Steal a bunch of kids’ presents? That’s low. Bob contrives to return the goodies and turns into a present himself when the kids catch him returning the gifts. Rob continues his life of crime, which lasts a day or two without Bob’s help. There’s not much for readers to chew on here that they haven’t heard a hundred times (crime doesn’t pay, being good is its own reward). Still, Pickford’s artwork is a treat, with Rob in his pink slippers and Bob with his binoculars, both as two-dimensional as possible—as if Bob has taken a good, hot iron to them—and with lots of crooked linework, which befits a couple crooks (or at least one real crook).
Remember—nice dogs find a good home and bumbling burglars find the big house. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84780-343-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
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BOOK REVIEW
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Action, clever humor, delightful illustrations and expectation-defying secret identities—when does the next one come out?
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Perfect Princess Magnolia has a secret—her alter ego is the Princess in Black, a superhero figure who protects the kingdom!
When nosy Duchess Wigtower unexpectedly drops by Princess Magnolia’s castle, Magnolia must protect her secret identity from the duchess’s prying. But then Magnolia’s monster alarm, a glitter-stone ring, goes off. She must save the day, leaving the duchess unattended in her castle. After a costume change, the Princess in Black joins her steed, Blacky (public identity: Frimplepants the unicorn), to protect Duff the goat boy and his goats from a shaggy, blue, goat-eating monster. When the monster refuses to see reason, Magnolia fights him, using special moves like the “Sparkle Slam” and the “Twinkle Twinkle Little Smash.” The rounded, cartoony illustrations featuring chubby characters keep the fight sequence soft and comical. Watching the fight, Duff notices suspicious similarities between the Princess in Black and Magnolia—quickly dismissed as “a silly idea”—much like the duchess’s dismissal of some discovered black stockings as being simply dirty, as “princesses don’t wear black.” The gently ironic text will amuse readers (including adults reading the book aloud). The large print and illustrations expand the book to a longish-yet-manageable length, giving newly independent readers a sense of accomplishment. The ending hints at another hero, the Goat Avenger.
Action, clever humor, delightful illustrations and expectation-defying secret identities—when does the next one come out? (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6510-4
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
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