A quirky tale that’s best suited for reading aloud.
An Irish girl must confront her fear of dogs in Young’s illustrated children’s holiday story.
Abby doesn’t mind Halloween, but she doesn’t want to go trick-or-treating because some people let their dogs out on their porches. However, Olivia, her identical twin, doesn’t mind this. While Olivia and the girls’ mother are out on Halloween night, they find someone giving away a litter of puppies. They come home with a small white West Highland terrier they’ve named Boo, and Abby panics and hides in her room. That night, she even has nightmares. But one day, she’s left alone with Boo and has to feed him. This makes her remember a traumatic event when she was younger: an encounter with a dog that growled in her face. But when she successfully feeds Boo without incident, it changes everything. The bundle of fur becomes her trusted friend and helps her to get over her fears. This meandering tale has some poetic turns of phrase, and Abby’s voice feels very adult in tone, as though she’s recalling events of her childhood. The unusual sentence structure can be challenging at times, which may stymie newly independent readers: “I was chill with Halloween, just not barking four-legged creatures behind doors, some even on front steps unchained.” There are several asides that add flavor to the story but feel somewhat digressive, as when Abby notes that dogs order their day “around eating and going for a walk (not unlike my grandpa).” Quiroz’s highly textured full-color paintings realistically capture the family saga, revealing Boo’s exuberance and Abby’s melancholy. A final image of the pair snuggling is a pleasant snapshot of family joy and calm.
A quirky tale that’s best suited for reading aloud.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 29
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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