A deliberately farfetched uproar about the consequences of Mortimer the raven's coming home one night with the taxi-driving father of little Arabel Jones. Mortimer, who croaks "Nevermore" at appropriate intervals, eats stairs and traffic lights and the escalator at the tube station. He is kidnapped (or "flyjacked") by two masked robbers who are terrorizing the town, but traps the pair later in the same tube station's lift. He roller-skates through the-multi-story car park, gets stuck in Auntie Brenda's chimney and costs Mrs. Jones two jobs, but is — inexplicably — so clear to Arabel who pulls him about in her little red wagon that only his comforting presence saves her from death. The scenes of parental hair tearing and throat clutching build up to an epidemic of hysteria when Mr. and Mrs. Jones go off to the Furriers' Freewheeling Ball, Arabel and Mortimer and babysitter Chris Cross step out to the milk machine (which so amuses the raven that Arabel continues to pour change — won from the slot machine — into other machines for gumdrops, cigarettes, photographs, you name it), and their absence from home sets the Joneses, their fellow revelers and the fire and police departments running in circles to a confusion of rumors about deadly gas, poisoned cheese and a gang of gorillas from Swanee Arabia. There is enough clutching for hilarity here that some of this is bound to be funny, but the family's indulgence of the tiresome bird is hard to credit and their distraction is too often just mechanically madcap.
Pub Date: May 10, 1974
ISBN: 0152060944
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1974
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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