The Ogre of Oglefort

Horn Book (July/August, 2011)


Ibbotson's playful humor, pungent turns of phrase, and sturdy friendliness toward her child heroes suffuse this novel (her second-to-last book), a fantasy that has its share of dramatic conflict but at heart celebrates the value of a peaceful home in which "people...[do] not want to be changed but...[are] content to be themselves." A displaced Hag and troll, a hapless wizard, and Ivo, an orphan whose look is "so attentive, so eager and intelligent" that he passes as an Unusual Creature, are told to slay a dreaded Ogre who holds a princess captive. But it turns out that Princess Mirella is with the Ogre of her own choice: she wants him to change her into a bird so she needn't marry foolish Prince Umberto. The Ogre doesn't want to transform her; he's a grieving widower who just wants to join his wife in her grave mound. Ivo, Mirella, and their magical friends become grief counselors, castle-and-garden renovators, and, briefly, a fighting force whose arsenal includes a soup tureen, roof tiles, and plagues of frogs, warts, and the Great Itch. In this one-darn-thing-after-another story, Ibbotson champions children's courage and intelligence and, in fantastical mode, illuminates the insidious evil of the overly interfering. deirdre f. baker

Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm

Booklist (February 1, 2011 (Vol. 107, No. 11))


Grades K-2. In a sort of picture-book version of his adult book A Dog Year (2002), Katz introduces the four dogs who now share life with him on a farm in upstate New York. Through simple text and bright photographs, the four pooches are described, one at a time. Rose, a border collie, herds sheep, and photos depict her staring down the flock even through heavy snow. Izzy was abandoned early in life but now is a therapy animal who visits the sick. Frieda, the rottweiler–German shepherd mix, “is a bit scary” and guards the farm. The question asked at the end of each chapter is the same: “But what is Lenore’s job?” The answer’s clear, but Katz spells it out: the black Lab, who “looks for disgusting things to eat and mud to roll in,” is in charge of keeping the other dogs happy by loving them—“And that may be the greatest work of all.” This is the love letter people wishes they could write to their own pets, and it makes a point well worth reiterating: in a family, all members are equally valuable.

Brixton Brothers: It Happened On A Train

Kirkus Review (August 15, 2011)


The Brixton Brothers Detective Agency is no more. Kid gumshoe Steve Brixton (who actually doesn't have a brother, he just picked the name because it mirrors his beloved Bailey Brothers detective stories) has, at the ripe old age of 12, retired from the detecting game. He became disenchanted upon discovering, during his last adventure (Ghostwriter Secret, 2010), that the author of those inspiring books was actually a criminal mastermind. So Steve's given up his agency, and now his best chum Dana is spending entirely too much time with Other Dana, his girlfriend. Little does Steve know that signing up for the Model U.N. with Dana and Other Dana will place him on a train rocketing toward detecting destiny!When meeting a mysterious young lady onboard gets Steve invited into the mysterious last car on the Sunset Coastliner, Steve and Dana (but not Other Dana) find themselves invited to protect Mr. Vanderdraak's new, vintage motor car from serial car thieves! Can Steve solve the case? More importantly, can he go more than five minutes without getting trapped somewhere? Barnett's sly and often silly Hardy Boy parody chugs along with plenty of laughs and enough honest-to-gosh mystery to please any lover of boy detective fiction. Rex's black-and-white pencils (which also parody the Hardy tales) are still a fine match for the goofiness. Mention of the next adventure at mystery's close will make Brixton fans smile. (Humorous mystery. 10-14)

Goyangi Means Cat

Kirkus Review starred (April 15, 2011)


This beautifully illustrated, gentle adoption story stands out from most other treatments of the topic by honestly and reassuringly addressing the loss-of a birth family, a birth culture-inherent in adoption as well as the joy a new family experiences. Here, Soo Min, a young Korean girl, is adopted by an American couple. Everything seems strange and new: She doesn't speak any English; her adoptive parents know little Korean. She finds comfort with Goyangi ("cat"), who doesn't need language to communicate, whose fur she strokes when afraid and who "licked her hand with his towelly tongue" when she is homesick for Korea. Soft-focus collage-and-paint illustrations show the family members getting to know one another: at the playground, in the library, playing soccer and just spending time at home together. Korean words in hanja (characters) incorporated into the pictures' backgrounds and the presence of Korean words in the Western alphabet interspersed throughout the text make this an excellent choice to share with children like Soo Min; seeing the words in both languages comforts as well as educates. Soo Min's age isn't specified; she looks about 2 or 3, which is older than most Korean children adopted in the United States, but that doesn't take away from the main idea. A sensitive portrayal of international adoption, authentically and realistically done. (Picture book. 4-7)

The Door In The Forest

Horn Book (March/April, 2011)


In a fictional 1923, in a time of "Uncertainties," Daniel is troubled by two things. One is the unreachable island in the middle of the forest ("The place pushed back against all your attempts, setting out twisted thickets of hedge-apple trees bristling with curved, medieval-looking thorns"); the other is his inability to lie, which renders him unpopular. Both are central when calamity descends on the town in the form of mad Captain Sloper. Claiming they are rooting out traitors, Sloper and his soldiers shell the protected island -- when they aren't harassing Daniel's new friend Emily, who seems to have a special relationship to it. Only after multiple confrontations with the military and a visit to the mysterious island do Emily and Daniel unravel the relevant puzzles. Townley's fanciful story swings like a pendulum from Wild West tall tale to a vague mysticism that is enlivened by colorful imagery. At the novel's not-so-strong moments, plot and episode waver in their logic. At its considerable best, it is quirky and engaging; sentences hurry purposefully along, deepening atmosphere, theme, and plot ("The trees [were] deeply shadowed, as if they knew more about night than the rest of us"). deirdre f. baker

Blackout

School Library Journal (July 1, 2011)


PreS-Gr 2-The view inside this family of four's duplex depicts what might be a typical night for them. The younger child is reaching for a board game, her older sister is talking on the phone, dad is cooking, and mom is working at the computer. When the girl tries to enlist the others to play the game with her, they're all too busy-until "The lights went out. All of them." It's a blackout! At first, the family members sit at the kitchen table with a flashlight and some candles; then they head up to the roof for a look at the bright stars against the dark cityscape; and, finally, they go down to the street, where there's a festive atmosphere of guitars playing, free ice cream, and an open fire hydrant. In the end, readers will see that simple pleasures and a spirit of togetherness can be enjoyed even when the electricity comes back on. The colorful pictures work beautifully with the book's design. Rocco uses comic-strip panels and a brief text to convey the atmosphere of a lively and almost magical urban landscape. Great bedtime reading for a soft summer night.-Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking

Horn Book (November/December, 2011)


"Underwater": In panel one, Benjamin Bear's pet canary and goldfish express a desire to see what's under the sea. In panel two we see Benjamin, in scuba gear, walking across the sand carrying the fish in a bowl and the bird in a cage. In panel three he is walking into the water. We worry: Will the fish escape; will the bird drown? But in the final panel we see the fish in a cage and the bird in the overturned, air-filled fishbowl. Four panels, eighteen words, one page, and a full story with desire, a journey, danger, and a "hey, presto" conjurer's denouement. In these twenty-seven single-page stories Coudray creates a set of visual haiku featuring Benjamin and a variety of his friends. An appended "Tips for Parents and Teachers" and the series name, "Easy-to-Read Comics," tell us that this is for emerging readers. The care given to binding, endpapers, and paper make it look like a picture book. The koan-like content suggests something like lateral thinking for tots. The whole enterprise lies somewhere between fuzzy-wuzzy was a bear and an introduction to fuzzy logic. It is original, deep-down funny, and, most important, the adventures are steeped in the rare quality of imaginative kindness. sarah ellis