The “2” on the spine and the cliffhanger ending indicate more genetically modified fun to come—hurrah.
When the blame for monstrous destruction lands on Hamstersaurus Rex, Sam must clear his tiny, half-dino buddy’s name.
Bully Kiefer “Beefer” Vanderkoff has been expelled from Horace Hotwater Middle School, and as Hamster Monitor, Sam gets to care for his class pet: a mutated, junk-food–obsessed hamster/dinosaur hybrid. All’s well…until the school is visited by rodential destruction on a mass scale and Hammie is the only possible culprit in everyone’s eyes. Everyone, that is, except Sam, who, while filming Chinchillazilla vs. MechaChinchillazilla (starring Hammie, of course), is attacked by a 12-foot-tall squirrel. Sam discovers that someone is controlling Squirrel Kong (his money’s on Beefer), and Sam has to prove it in order to save Hammie from being sent away to the Irma Bergstrom Memorial Home for Troubled Small Pets. When this seems impossible, Sam teams up with several former nemeses to expose the real culprit. Can he do it before a classmate tries to claim a $300 reward for information on Hammie’s whereabouts or before Squirrel Kong destroys the whole town? O’Donnell’s sequel to Hammie’s eponymous first outing (2016) is as goofball as the first. Dotted with Miller’s black-and-white cartoon illustrations—in which Sam is depicted as white, with classmates of various skin tones—it’s sure to please those who enjoyed Hammie and Sam’s first adventure.
The “2” on the spine and the cliffhanger ending indicate more genetically modified fun to come—hurrah. (Science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-237756-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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