Cloudy With a Chance of Books

This book has a great villain. I find I sometimes need someone to *boo* and *hiss* and the nanny Miss Barmy with her plans to orphan Emmy and steal her fortune is perfect. She channels Cruella deVille with her willingness to stomp on a lonely little girl, her goodhearted bookseller parents, and some defenseless rodents on her route to personal wealth.

This book has some great rodents – rodents with magical powers from the sweetly mind-reading Endear Mouse to the braggart Rat of the title whose second bite shrinks people to rodent size.

Emmy herself is a grand heroine. She figures out Miss Barmy’s plans with help from some rodent and human friends. It is nice to see a balanced girl who can do a lot for herself and is independent, but also find friends she an rely on for the help she needs. I love a smart girl who succeeds against evil and makes good choices to treat her friends well. Emmy makes the right choices even if she thinks they may cost her. Luckily, the author makes sure all comes right for Emmy because I don’t think I could have stood it if she weren’t left happy.

Jonathan Bean’s artwork and most especially his flipbook edging were a delightful addition. Frosting on a well-written delicious story. 346p., 2007.

This book about a dog named Aggie and her boy, Ben, is a cheerful treat for new readers. Ben wonders if Aggie is a good dog and if she will ever learn to SIT and STAY when there are squirrels and cats to chase.

The illustrator does a great job of capturing movement and emotion in his pictures. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Aggie gets into a ladies’ hat shop and finds a mirror that shows her three dogs who need to be barked at. On a tear through the store Aggie ends up in a jaunty hat. A dog wearing a ladies hat is very funny.

Ries manages the fine art of storytelling in short sentences and with short words. This book is very friendly to beginning readers. The stories are simple, but filled with action.  The pictures support the story showing the action described in the text which is helpful for readers who may struggle with the words.  The book is divided into 3 chapters (Aggie at School, Aggie in Training, and A Bad Dog) and is just under 50 pages which feels like a good length – long enough to feel substantial without being overwhelming to new readers.  I would recommend this book and its prequel Aggie and Ben to readers who like DiCamillo’s Mercy Watson books. 48p., 2009

I am going to be a judge for the Cybils category of Easy Readers and Early Chapter Book. I trying to read and review as many of the nominated books as possible to get a feel for the genre.  This is the first nominee I’ve read.

Obi named after the Jedi knight Obi-wan-kenobi is forgotten when his family leaves on vacation. A neighbor feeds all the household pets except Obi who is absent from the feeding instructions. Obi must brave the house to look for food and face some scary other pets (a snake and three cats who would love to eat Obi). An elderly mouse makes Obi question whether his owner Rachel truly cares for him, but all comes out right in the end. There is even cheddar cheese for Obi brought back as a vacation souvenir. 197p., 2008

This was my animal fiction for August and while I started in August it took until September to complete reading the story of a brave gerbil and his love for one special girl.

Hunter is following her wildly popular Warriors series with a new series featuring bears. This first book follows 3 cubs – one polar bear, one grizzly and one black bear as they each find themselves alone in the wild following the bear star to the north. Each cub struggles to survive facing the dangers of other bears protecting their territory, hunger, and human threats.

Death and danger are palpable. Ecological messages about how humans have tainted and changed the environment are mixed throughout from poisoned forests to the early melting of the ice the polar bears use to hunt seals. In this book, the wild is a mystical space with bear spirits inhabiting the trees, the stars and the rivers. In the final third of the book, the book takes a turn from animal fiction to fantasy. The reader meets Ujurak who is a shape shifter dwelling mainly in bear form, but able to take the form of other animals and even human form. Readers of Warriors will find the cubs satisfying characters and want to see what happens as the next book draws these three cubs together on their quest north. 2008, 293p.

The story of the ugly duckling is retold with an Australian and Tasmanian setting. The protagonist is a Black Australian Swan who believes himself to be an ugly Pacific black duck. After being kicked out by the ducks, Ugly befriends a Wallaby and a Possum before finding his true home with the swans.

Lush in details about this area’s unique fauna (and particularly its waterfowl), this book will appeal to those who like their talking animals to act like animals and nature to be harsh. I think readers of Avi’s Poppy series would enjoy Ugly. It has the same element of a harsh natural world made bearable by genuine friendships.

This was my animal book for the month of June. I am now halfway through my goal of one animal book each month about a different kind of animal. I have now read about cats, mice, songbirds, prehistoric bats, foxes, and swans.

2006, 186p.

A book about a dragon told by a rabbit from Tony Diterlizzi (Spiderwick creator).
Yep, this is gonna be my animal fiction of the month for
September:
Kenny and The Dragon

I am finally blogging my animal fiction book for May. The main character was a fox. All the animals dressed and behaved as though they lived in an England that ranged from medieval to Dickensian. The pictures by Christian Slade were delightful and the story well-crafted, if predictable and populated with stock characters. Give to those who enjoyed Brian Jacques (though this is simpler) and those who loved the Wind in the Willows or – this would be perfect for kids who loved the Disney cartoon of Robin Hood with animal characters.

Plot:
The fox Penhaligon discovers an evil plan to crash the ship carrying a cat princess to her wedding. It will take all the cleverness of this fox to stop Sir Derek’s deadly plans.
2007, 230p.

For my animal fiction book this month, I went back in time to the Palocene epoch when mammals were on the rise and fighting for dominance.

Young Dusk is a new kind of creature at the end of the time of dinosaurs. He is the only one in his colony of tree gliding chiropters who is able to flap his wings and fly. When a new group of meat hunting mammals led by the savage Carnassial threaten Dusk’s colony, he alone is able to guide them to a new home. With the threat of predators at every turn, Dusk questions the possibility of his survival and whether he will ever truly belong to the colony he loves when he is so different.

Oppel sure can write! His prehistoric world is vivid with detail. The animals are well drawn characters who grapple with the large questions of morality and loyalty in a time of war and struggle for dominance. The clans of various creatures each have their own codes and alliances adding layers of richness to the story. The action and battle sequences had me gripping the book. Darkwing reads independently of the Silverwing trilogy, but readers who enjoyed the trilogy will not want to miss this one. Make sure to steer readers of Guardians of Ga’Hoole and the Warriors series to Oppel’s Darkwing.
420p., 2007.

Each month of 2007, I am reading a piece of animal fiction. This month its battling birds!

Turnat the hawk, self-proclaimed Tyrant, is taking slavebirds, stealing eggs, and threatening to destroy the two bird tribes of Stone Run Forest. The tribes of cardinals and blue jays mount a quest for a magical stone that will allow them to summon the Swordbird to vanquish Turnat. The story here is tightly plotted, but the characters lack depth and there is no gray – only black and white. The illustrations of the bird warriors are well done and add much to the book. Fans of Jacques’ Redwall or Hunter’s Warriors, may enjoy joining the flock for their adventures.

219 p. 2007

I finished my animal book of the month for February choosing a book filled with rats for this Chinese New Year – the year of the rat.

This book about mice is anything but cute. It is as the title promises a dark fantasy with rats like Peeler who has a blade attached to one arm for more easily peeling mice and Smiler whose lips were cut away by another rat when he was young giving him a gruesome permanent grin. The rat lord’s black magic threatens mice, rats and all the other animals. Guided by the bats’ cryptic foretellings of a dark future, a band of likeable young mice enter a dangerous underground world. One thing I’d change if I could is the illustrations (by the author), they were cartoonish in a way that did not suit the dark terror of this tale. Recommend to fans of the Warriors and Redwall series and tell them not to let the interior illustrations keep them from reading this.

Albert Brown, a house mouse, travels into the sewers and never returns. His children Arthur and Audrey go to find out if their father has indeed been killed by the rats known for peeling and eating the mice they come across. They find the rats are digging a massive tunnel as commanded by their dark lord, Jupiter – the scariest, most deadly rat of them all. When Jupiter finds that Audrey’s magical abilities may pose a threat to his schemes he sends his rats to hunt her down and promises she will see her father soon.
p. 243 U.S. 2000