Goofy, readable chapter-book fun for our Chihuahua butler.
DJ Funkyfoot puts his foot down.
DJ Funkyfoot is not a hip-hop star or a rapper; he is a Chihuahua butler. His parents gave him the first name DJ (in case he decided to spin funky beats) and middle name MC (in case he excelled at rapping cool rhymes), but all DJ Funkyfoot wants is a great butler job. It’s a fantastic and amazing day—worthy of shouting “WOW!”—when he gets a call from the White House butler. The president’s own butler, a mustachioed pig in a beret, is taking a vacation day to go play miniature golf. DJ Funkyfoot has a new job for the day! But President Horse G. Horse is quite a pawful. All that’s on the docket today is to sign the peace treaty with Wingland, but the president is too much of a selfish baby to cooperate. Funny dialogue and frequent cartoon illustrations keep the action lively as President Horse drags DJ Funkyfoot into all kinds of silly trouble at the Mini Golf and Fondue Fun Spot. DJ Funkyfoot knows how to be a good butler, but if a butler works for someone who lies and cheats and doesn’t care about war, he can’t always say “yes” to everything. Witty repetitive prose aids comprehension (and the recurrences of “hot cheese volcano” make mini golf sound extra delicious).
Goofy, readable chapter-book fun for our Chihuahua butler. (Humor. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4730-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming.
An assortment of unusual characters form friendships and help each other become their best selves.
Mr. and Mrs. Tupper, who live at Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, are antiquarians. Their daughter, Jillian, loves and cares for a plant named Ivy, who has “three speckles on each leaf and three letters in her name.” Toasty, the grumpy goldfish, lives in an octagonal tank and wishes he were Jillian’s favorite; when Arthur the spider arrives inside an antique desk, he brings wisdom and insight. Ollie the violet plant, Louise the bee, and Sunny the canary each arrive with their own quirks and problems to solve. Each character has a distinct personality and perspective; sometimes they clash, but more often they learn to empathize, see each other’s points of view, and work to help one another. They also help the Tupper family with bills and a burglar. The Fan brothers’ soft-edged, old-fashioned, black-and-white illustrations depict Toasty and Arthur with tiny hats; Ivy and Ollie have facial expressions on their plant pots. The Tuppers have paper-white skin and dark hair. The story comes together like a recipe: Simple ingredients combine, transform, and rise into something wonderful. In its matter-of-fact wisdom, rich vocabulary (often defined within the text), hint of magic, and empathetic nonhuman characters who solve problems in creative ways, this delightful work is reminiscent of Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo, and Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord and Stephanie Graegin.
Charming. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781665942485
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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