The latest detective on the crowded juvenile scene is ten-year-old Phoebe Danger-field, who shortened her name for her newspaper ad because she couldn't afford the extra line. As Phoebe isn't blessed with sharp eyes, she relies on her reluctant assistant Dash, who would rather be bird-watching but sticks around in hope of financing a new pair of binoculars. Their first case deals with a stolen cough medicine bottle, a 1902 collectible and the only one of its kind, which Mrs. Willington had been safe-keeping for her traveling sister. Mr. Willington, an avid collector himself, arrives home from Peru indignant that two ten-year-olds are investigating; but on his wife's request, he compromises and gives them three hours to solve the case. Well, clues just fall into their hands as the kids dash around town to meet the deadline, and soon Phoebe announces that Mr. W. was not in Peru last night at all, but staying at a local hotel and robbing his own house. As Phoebe notes, "for someone who likes to read mysteries [Mr. Willington] left a pretty clear trail. She mused on his happening to drop both the receipt [for a locally purchased Peruvian artifact] and the key to the Beaumont Hotel." She might also muse on his undisguised alarm or relief as the kids get hot or cold on the trail—a clear tip-off to readers, though apparently missed by Dash and Phoebe. The case itself is pretty heavy-handedly contrived, then, though Fleischman keeps the kids in motion and the tone light—and Apple's winning touch adds considerable appeal.
Pub Date: March 1, 1983
ISBN: 0395332265
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1983
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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