Feline aficionados may love the cat characters, but the “mystery” won’t leave them purring.
Cat brothers Anton and Cecil are on the road again…or above it, as the case may be.
Fresh from ocean and train trips (Cats at Sea, 2013, etc.), slim, smart Anton and his fluffy, trouble-magnet brother, Cecil, are ready to head home. Their friends in the mouse network give them directions that lead to their meeting Ruby, a bloodhound who works with a human detective. Ruby has a case she’d like the cats’ help on: puppies are going missing at the fair. The trio splits up, and with the help of other animals around the fair, they find the puppies are being dognapped. Danger-prone Cecil ends up in a trap meant to nab a puppy…and then in a hot air balloon. Separated again, the brothers must reunite and expose the human dog thieves while helping their animal friends along the way. Adult literary author Valerie Martin and her educator niece, Lisa Martin, present a mild third outing. While technically well-written, the action sequences are more wordy than wild, and the animal characters are so pleasant there’s very little tension in their world. They don’t understand everything the humans around them do, and that may elicit a few smiles from some young readers. Parents seeking a fright-free, friendly tale with few surprises need look no further.
Feline aficionados may love the cat characters, but the “mystery” won’t leave them purring. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61620-459-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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