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. 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS
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A lad finds a penguin on his doorstep and resolutely sets out to return it in this briefly told import.
Eventually, he ends up rowing it all the way back to Antarctica, braving waves and storms, filling in the time by telling it stories. But then, feeling lonely after he drops his silent charge off, he belatedly realizes that it was probably lonely too, and turns back to find it. Seeing Jeffers’s small, distant figures in wide, simply brushed land- and sea-scapes, young viewers will probably cotton to the penguin’s feelings before the boy himself does—but all’s well that ends well, and the reunited companions are last seen adrift together in the wide blue sea.
Readers who (inexplicably) find David Lawrence’s Pickle and Penguin (2004) just too weird may settle in more comfortably with this—slightly—less offbeat friendship tale. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-399-24503-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Can Gerald and Piggie’s friendship withstand the friendly overtures of Brian Bat?
When Snake informs Gerald that Piggie is playing with Brian Bat, he is at first complacent. Brian is “nice,” he observes; Snake concurs—after all, he says, “Brian is my Best Friend!” Their mutual reflection that Piggie and Brian “must be having a super-duper fun time!” turns, however, to paranoia when they realize that if their best pals “are having that much fun together, then… / …maybe they do not need us” (that last is printed in teeny-tiny, utterly demoralized type). Gerald and Snake dash/slither to put an end to the fun. Their fears are confirmed when the two new buddies tell them they have “been playing BEST FRIEND GAMES!”—which, it turns out, means making drawings of their respective best friends, Gerald and Snake. Awww. While the buildup to the friends’ confrontation is characteristically funny, there’s a certain feeling of anticlimax to the story’s resolution. How many young children, when playing with a new friend, are likely to spend their time thinking of the friends that they are not playing with? This is unfortunate, as the emotions that Gerald and Snake experience are realistic and profound, deserving of more than a platitudinous, unrealistic response.
Everything that readers have come to love about the Elephant & Piggie books is present—masterful pacing, easy-to-follow, color-coded speech bubbles, hilarious body language—except an emotionally satisfying ending. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-7958-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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