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LITTLE THIEF! CHOTA CHOR!

Name: LITTLE THIEF! CHOTA CHOR!
Author: Vijaya Bodach
ISBN: 978-1-4788-6813-2

by Vijaya Bodach ; illustrated by Nayantara Surendranath ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 2020

Whimsical illustrations cannot mitigate the wandering plot and unimpressive prose.

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When Anjali wakes up in the middle of the night, the cold floor makes her wonder if someone has come in the house and left the door open—a thief, perhaps?

While her mother sleeps soundly, Anjali investigates. There is no food missing from the kitchen, but Anjali soon finds that her sparkly skirt, her mother’s silver comb, and a handful of coins are missing. Panicked, Anjali runs into the street screaming, summoning her neighbors and finally waking up her mother. But when she discovers that her river rocks are also missing, Anjali wonders if the thief is a villain or maybe just a lost little girl looking for treasure. When Anjali and her neighbors finally apprehend the thief, it turns out to be someone—or, rather, something—they never would have expected. Eventually, Anjali falls asleep next to her mother, dreaming of befriending the surprise thief. While the book’s illustrations effectively use bold blocks of color to create a fanciful feel, the text leaves much to be desired. The story meanders, often including superfluous details that are either already in the illustrations or read as a rather belabored explanation of the South Asian setting. Several of Anjali’s actions feel age inappropriate, including lighting an oil lamp with no parental supervision, running through her neighborhood alone in the dark, and feeding a wild monkey a banana. These excitements aside, overall, the story is too scattered and the prose too uneven to hold attention. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.4-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 69.4% of actual size.)

Whimsical illustrations cannot mitigate the wandering plot and unimpressive prose. (Picture book. 2-6)

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-4788-6813-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Reycraft Books

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

- BOOK REVIEW
TEN EASTER EGGS
by Vijaya Bodach ; illustrated by Laura Logan

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WHOBERT WHOVER, OWL DETECTIVE

by Jason Gallaher ; illustrated by Jess Pauwels ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2017

A cracking whooooo-dunit.

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An owl detective tries to discover exactly what happened to Perry the possum.

Whobert likes to patrol the forest and keep it safe from danger. So when he sees Perry the possum lying on the ground, he knows something is amiss. “Poor Perry!” Whobert exclaims. “I will find out who, who done it!” He looks around and spots some feathery evidence. It must have been Debbie the duck! (Young sleuths will notice the feathers are red, like Whobert’s, not blue, like Debbie’s.) “It was YOU! You whacked Perry with your wicked wings!” Whobert declares. With a cleverly placed page turn and anticipated rhyme, Debbie pleads her innocence: “What a quack! It wasn’t me, Whobert! It’s true! Not guilty: you see, it was—” // “Who?” implores Whobert. Invoking every detective element from eyewitnesses to footprints, Whobert interrogates other forest residents. Each creature replies with the same refrain, leading readers to believe that the culprit just may be someone Whobert knows very well. Pauwels’ digital forest scenes full of tiny onlookers such as bees, spiders, and worms complement Gallaher’s witty wordplay. Readers unfamiliar with the idea of “playing possum” may not fully appreciate the joke—though Perry does explain his unique defense strategy so there is a teachable moment.

A cracking whooooo-dunit. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: July 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4814-6271-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: McElderry

Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

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BETTY’S BURGLED BAKERY

ALLITERATION AND ANIMAL ANTICS SOLVE A SILLY SITUATION

by Travis Nichols ; illustrated by Travis Nichols ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2017

This tasty treat’s bound to have young readers alliterating along.

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A bandit wipes out Betty’s Bakery! Can the Gumshoe Zoo crack the case?

Detective Antoine is interrupted in midsentence—“Always anticipate an alarm. At…any…”—by a frantic call from a panda named Betty. “A bread bandit burgled my bakery before breakfast.” Antoine assembles his multispecies squad, and they all head to the crime scene in their big purple van. Nichols’ tale progresses through the alphabet in chunks of alliterative narrative. When the squad gets to the bakery, goat Quentin declares, “We’ll find the fully fed, fiendish foe.” As the investigation continues, Quentin buys some snacks, offering “maybe a meager morsel from the mini-market?” Betty is too distraught to eat: “I’m in need of nary a nibble.” Detective Steve, a monkey, finds a solid lead in a half-eaten tart: “If we trace the teeth tracks in this torn tart…/ We can ultimately uncover an unusual underbite.” They do, straight to Betty! She’s not only a sleepwalker, she’s a sleep-eater. Detective Morgan, a white bird, sums it up: “We zipped this zany zigzagging zinger with zeal!” The appendix gives a nice description of alliteration as well as descriptions of five notable leaders of the animal world. The story is a crisp and clever caper, laid out like a comic book in panels. The simple cartoons are rendered in pencil on paper and colored digitally.

This tasty treat’s bound to have young readers alliterating along. (Picture book. 3-6)