A deeply satisfying adventure for readers young and old.
An industrious raccoon helps wherever she’s needed.
Living in a restaurant, where she cooks creatively and continuously after hours, the pointy-faced Night Chef savors what she can of her life, but hers is a solitary existence. When she unexpectedly becomes caretaker for a baby crow, she decides to find the hatchling’s family. While searching, she lands at a tiny riverside diner run by a mole, staffed by frogs, and patronized by a panoply of animals. Thrilled to discover this small community, she dives right into helping prepare meals. Unfortunately, the restaurant is being terrorized by a frenzied owl, whose attacks threaten to shut down the whole cozy, companionable operation. Night Chef continues her journey to find the young crow’s family, stopping at an empty diner to whip up a meal for a group of hungry fellow raccoons and leaping aboard a train car filled with barking dogs, but she soon returns to defend her newfound culinary home against their owl attacker by drawing on community connections, culinary skills, and a healthy heap of bravery. Song’s lighthearted, expressive character studies and simple, specific scenery, rendered with textural ink-and-watercolor artwork, blend into a true visual treat. Intimately realized scenes of kitchen life envelop readers; Song’s imaginative specificity revels in small moments of plating and serving, cleaning and closing, as well as the rich rewards of working as a team.
A deeply satisfying adventure for readers young and old. (frittata recipe) (Graphic animal fantasy. 6-10)Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780593303153
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Lively fun with animal friends.
Has Plum’s pep deserted him?
Several animals from the Athensville Zoo are on their way to visit an elementary school. Overconfident Itch the ningbing (an Australian marsupial), unaware that zookeeper Lizzie will be doing all the talking, looks forward to “lecturing eager young minds.” Plum, the usually chipper peacock, on the other hand, is anxious—maybe the schoolchildren won’t like him or he’ll get lost. So when they arrive at the school to find the students have been sent home due to a blizzard, Plum is relieved. The animals are left in a school gym for the night until three self-important class mice free them. Itch heads for the library to meet the learned turtle, but Plum reluctantly explores with his friends. When his anxiety peaks, they reassure him, and when the mice reject Meg, another peacock, as “borrrring” and uncool, they buoy her as well before everyone comes together to save Itch, who finds himself outside and stranded in a snowdrift. Unlike Leave It to Plum (2022), this is not a mystery, and the relationship focus shifts from Lizzie to the rodents, but the pace is brisk, and sequel seekers will be pleased to revisit familiar characters (if dismayed that Itch’s longing for knowledge leads to his downfall). In Phelan’s engaging grayscale pen-and-wash illustrations, Lizzie has short curly hair; text and art cue her as Latine.
Lively fun with animal friends. (how to draw Plum) (Chapter book. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-307920-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.
When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.
As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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