A wickedly funny ramble. With bunnies.
Horvath takes on the world of talking animals with all the absurdist, satirical panache fans have come to expect from the award-winning author.
The intrigue begins when fifth-grader Madeline’s hippie parents Mildred and Flo are kidnapped on Canada’s Hornby Island by a band of foxes in trench coats who have learned all about “hoomans” from studying sitcoms. The foxes don’t care about Mildred and Flo; they just urgently need the spacey couple to remember where Mildred’s Uncle Runyon lives, a government scientist who may be able to decipher the encrypted recipes needed to launch their enterprise: Fanny Fox’s Canned Rabbit Products and By-products. As the hyper-responsible Madeline contemplates her parents’ plight, she’s discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Bunny, empty nesters (and detectives) who are only too delighted to find a nice human girl who speaks fluent Bunny, even if her bottom is gigantic. The story of Madeline’s budding relationship with the refreshingly nurturing Bunnys and their joint endeavor to find Madeline’s hopeless parents propel the farcical adventure. Playful pokes at everything from Fox News (“Foxes are titans of industry”) to the glut of orphans in children’s books are often hilarious. A favorite of the splendid black-and-white illustrations shows Mr. Bunny in his 12-inch disco shoes that allow him to reach the pedals of his SmartCar.
A wickedly funny ramble. With bunnies. (Satiric mystery. 9-14)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-375-86755-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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BOOK TO SCREEN
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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