Quibbles aside, a space achievement well worth commemorating, with a less tragic outcome than Laika’s mission.
Two canine cosmonauts make history.
Not to be confused with Nancy Coffelt’s 1993 storytime staple of the same name, this look back to the space race’s early years follows the careers of Soviet “space dogs” Belka and Strelka—the first living creatures to survive a journey into orbit. With considerable embroidery, Southgate describes in some detail how the two strays were enticed off the Moscow streets, carefully tested and trained for their 1960 flight, monitored through multiple orbits, then brought back to Earth to become world celebrities. Along with giving the dogs anthropomorphic smiles, Deppe adds fanciful details, such as bubble helmets for both, and makes no effort to depict the Sputnik 5 spacecraft accurately. Still, the flat, bright images of blastoff and the use of headlines and poster type add plenty of visual drama, and as they take their star turns the two space travelers positively glow with doggy personality throughout. The fact that Belka and Strelka were actually accompanied by a large menagerie of rodents and other creatures is relegated to a comment in one of the two closing timelines, where the fates of the “more than 50 dogs” launched into space before Belka and Strelka also go unmentioned.
Quibbles aside, a space achievement well worth commemorating, with a less tragic outcome than Laika’s mission. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61067-824-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education.
A young visionary describes his ideal school: “Perfectly planned and impeccably clean. / On a scale, 1 to 10, it’s more like 15!”
In keeping with the self-indulgently fanciful lines of If I Built a Car (2005) and If I Built a House (2012), young Jack outlines in Seussian rhyme a shiny, bright, futuristic facility in which students are swept to open-roofed classes in clear tubes, there are no tests but lots of field trips, and art, music, and science are afterthoughts next to the huge and awesome gym, playground, and lunchroom. A robot and lots of cute puppies (including one in a wheeled cart) greet students at the door, robotically made-to-order lunches range from “PB & jelly to squid, lightly seared,” and the library’s books are all animated popups rather than the “everyday regular” sorts. There are no guards to be seen in the spacious hallways—hardly any adults at all, come to that—and the sparse coed student body features light- and dark-skinned figures in roughly equal numbers, a few with Asian features, and one in a wheelchair. Aside from the lack of restrooms, it seems an idyllic environment—at least for dog-loving children who prefer sports and play over quieter pursuits.
An all-day sugar rush, putting the “fun” back into, er, education. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-55291-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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