Book Review: The Sheep, the Rooster and the Duck by Matt Phelan

The Sheep, the Rooster and the Duck
by Matt Phelan (j Phelan)

Matt Phelan brings his unique, comical art style to this hybrid juvenile novel — part prose, and part illustrated graphic novel. In 1783, in France, the Montgolfier brothers launched the first hot air balloon, and it was occupied by a sheep, a rooster and a duck.

 

Phelan takes this historical fact and weaves a fanciful tale, in which those three animals are actually secretly heroic agents who work behind the scenes to make sure no one comes to harm. This short novels involves them and their allies attempting to rescue the visiting inventor and diplomat Benjamin Franklin, whose fascination with lighter-than-air travel has placed him in the way of a group of nefarious types who are hoping to initiate a war between France and England. The three animals characters, Bernadette the sheep, Pierre the rooster and Jean Luc the duck (and their fourth, a mouse named Felix), hold their own amongst the human cast (who mostly are stunned to be interacting with talking animals). Pierre the rooster engages in swordplay with the villain, Cagliostro, and there’s a budding relationship between Franklin’s servant Emile and the animals pilot, Sophie.

The Sheep, the Rooster and the Duck is a funny, silly, action-packed and thought-provoking tale of adventure, appropriate for youth and adults who are young at heart!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of Matt Phelan’s other books, particularly Bluffton: My Summers With Buster and Snow White.)

 

( official Matt Phelan web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Teaflet and Roog Make a Mess by Jeanne Birdsall

Teaflet and Roog Make a Mess
by Jeanne Birdsall (j Birdsall)

Award-winning author Jeanne Birdsall teamed up with friend and neighbor Jane Dyer to create a magical world called Trelfdom where very small creatures live in harmony with nature. Teaflet and her brother Roog are working hard to prepare for the 10th annual Strawberry Jam Party while also preparing the house for a visit from the new inspector of neatness. Animals in need of help or healing from Teaflet keep getting underfoot as Roog attempts to get all his baking done in time for the party. Will their house ever be tidy again? This delightful story is a visual feast for anyone interested in miniatures or felt crafting. The animals and characters are all made by hand from wool that is needle-felted by illustrator Jane Dyer, who also raises the sheep for the wool she uses in this book. I especially enjoyed the character of the Neatness Inspector, “the dreaded Inspector Maple, with the even more dreaded neatness list on her clipboard.” I highly recommend this book for all ages.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, or any books by Jill Barklem, including Spring Story, The Secret Staircase, Summer Story, Autumn Story, Winter Story or The High Hills, etc.)

 

( official Teaflet and Roog page on the official Jeanne Birdsall web site )

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

 

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell

Odd and the Frost Giants
by Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by Chris Riddell

Surprisingly, despite being a big Neil Gaiman fan, I had not previously read this 2008 release from the fantasy master, which is generally classified as a juvenile novel. However, when this all-new edition, featuring extensive black & white pen illustrations by Chris Riddell, showed up in the library collection, I couldn’t pass it up. I’m glad I did grab this…Odd and the Frost Giants taps into Norse mythology and tales of the Vikings. It features the adventures of a young Norseman named Odd, who is partially lame from a childhood accident, and who finds himself on the outs with his family after his widowed mother remarries and his stepfather shuts him out. During a winter that seems to never end, Odd strikes out to make a life for himself, only to encounter a trio of talking animals — a fox, an eagle and a bear — who are the Norse gods Lodi, Odin and Thor transformed and trapped in animal form by a powerful Frost Giant who has taken over Asgard and banished its gods. This book is the tale of Odd on his quest to aid the fallen gods and stop the endless winter from enveloping his own world. Gaiman’s story is told in fairytale style, without excessive detail. And Riddell’s illustrations in this edition are beautiful to look at and complement Gaiman’s words very well.

If you have never read Odd and the Frost Giants before, I strongly recommend this version, and I recommend looking for any other books featuring the artwork of Chris Riddell, as well!

[ official Neil Gaiman web site ] | [ official Chris Riddell web site ]

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations! #ReadersUnite

The Heartless Troll by Oyvind Torseter

The Heartless Troll
by Oyvind Torseter [j Torseter] 

This came highly recommended to me by a couple of other readers, both a co-worker and one of our library customer “regulars”, so when a copy came across the desk, recently, I decided to take a chance on it. In the end, I don’t think I’m necessarily the “target audience” for this one. Norwegian artist, illustrator, author and comic-book creator Oyvind Torseter takes a classic Norwegian folk tale, about “the troll without a heart”, and turns it into a fancifully-illustrated childrens’ adventure tale.

When all but one of the sons of a ruler leave home in search of brides, but disappear, the seventh and youngest prince tells his father that he must seek out his missing brethren and find out their fates. Provided with a reluctant and sarcastic horse, and minimal supplies, the young prince sets out on an epic quest, overcoming a number of obstacles before reaching the terrifying lair of a Troll, who has turned all the other princes and their wives into stone statues.

Aided by a number of talking animals, a very cooperative captive princess, and his own common sense, the prince must figure out a way to capture the massive troll’s heart, in order to set his family free. This is a fairly simple story overall, and Torseter’s artwork is both detailed and yet whimsical. There is a sense of humor to the whole story — particularly in the dialog provided by the hero’s unheroic horse. Kids will probably appreciate this more than adults. I was hoping to find it unforgettable, but I basically just got some chuckles out of it in the end.

[ official Oyvind Torseter blog ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations! #ReadersUnite