Egan’s already strange universe (Distant Feathers, 1998, etc.) continues to expand with this weird and terrific story of a bowling team gone wrong. They are the Rogues, a motley band of creatures—raccoon, ape, rat, walrus—who are bad at bowling. One night, after a few particularly awful games, the frustrated ape kicks over a can of trash. It feels so good to all of them that they start down a path of subversive behavior: “Crossing the street when the light said ‘Don’t Walk.’ Scaring pigeons. We felt dangerous.” They encounter Vincent, who becomes their mentor, and the sheep lady, who trains them in the art of bank robbery. It’s all a set-up; Vincent and the sheep lady go free, while the Rogues get seven years each in the slammer. Prison, though scary, does them good, and afterward the Rogues become prosperous and decent citizens of the community. Perhaps readers should just sit down and allow the barking unconventionality of this picture-book topic to wash over them. As ever, Egan’s richly atmospheric artwork adds immeasurably to the story, evoking every reformed tough-guy movie ever made in plotting and narration, and just as classic. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-91007-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
From readers’ early glimpses of Zachary, the red-haired, bespectacled moppet hero of this story, standing on the edge of an orange toilet seat in his acid green jammies, they’ll know this is no ordinary tale. Zachary finds two zebras and a shaggy dog drinking from the birdbath quite early one Saturday morning, and a white-bearded codger out front trying to start his truck. The codger is the Dream Collector, who gathers folks’ dreams before dawn each day to keep them from becoming real when the sunlight touches them. Zachary brings him tools and tries to round up the stray dreams; zebras, pirates, a knight, and a dragon are loaded into the truck. The Dream Collector gets it started just in time—but allows the dream-conjured shaggy dog, with “eyes like chocolate kisses” to stay and become Zachary’s real dog. Children might find the thought of dreams becoming real either delightful or creepy, but it is hard not to be charmed by the illustrations, with their deep palette of greens, reds, and blues; the fully realized shapes of Zachary and the Dream Collector and the truck are reassuring next to the more evanescent forms of the dragon and the pirates. As Zachary bounds up to his parents’ bedroom with the dog in tow, young readers will have a fine time thinking about what happens next. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-55074-437-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
Hopping is not hard, for a frog, but when he asks other animals to join him, he finds that bats flap, lobsters snap, and dust flies when an especially large rhinoceros stomps. None of the creatures can do what the frog does so well, until he meets a rabbit, and it becomes a friendship bound by bounding. Vere’s creatures are reminiscent of Sandra Boynton’s: smiling, bright, and lively, unrestrained by this board book’s small dimensions. A hopping good time. (Board book. 1-4)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30131-1
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
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