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Summary
Summary
Yippie-i-oh Saddle up for the first in a spin-off series starring favorite characters from Kate DiCamillo's New York Times best-selling Mercy Watson books.
Leroy Ninker has a hat, a lasso, and boots. What he doesn't have is a horse--until he meets Maybelline, that is, and then it's love at first sight. Maybelline loves spaghetti and sweet nothings, and she loves Leroy, too. But when Leroy forgets the third and final rule of caring for Maybelline, disaster ensues. Can Leroy wrestle fate to the ground, rescue the horse of his heart, and lasso loneliness for good? Join Leroy, Maybelline, and a cast of familiar characters--Stella, Frank, Mrs. Watson, and everyone's favorite porcine wonder, Mercy--for some hilarious and heartfelt horsing around on Deckawoo Drive.
Author Notes
Kate DiCamillo was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 25, 1964. She received an English degree from the University of Florida. At the age of thirty, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and worked for a book warehouse on the children's floor. After working there for four and a half years, she fell in love with children's books and began writing. DiCamillo wrote the 2001 Newbery-honor book, Because of Winn-Dixie, which was adapted into a film in 2005. In 2004, she won the Newbery Medal for The Tale of Despereaux, which was also adapted into a movie in 2008, and for Flora and Ulysses in 2013. Her other works include the Mercy Watson series, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and The Magician's Elephant. She was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress for the term 2014-2015.
Kate's title, Raymie Nightingale, mde the New York Times bestseller list in 2016.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Leroy Ninker, operator of the Bijou Drive-in Theater concession stand, is a little man with big dreams. This reformed toaster thief has set his sights on becoming a cowboy, and he has a great start: a lasso, boots, and a hat. However, real cowboys ride horses. Responding to a local advertisement, Leroy sets off with grandiose ideas of procuring a majestic steed that he will name Tornado. Instead, he gets an independent-minded, spaghetti-eating, four-toothed horse named Maybelline. When a nighttime thunderstorm spooks Maybelline into skittish gallop and she takes off, a bootless Leroy races through town in search of his beloved equine friend, only to find her calmly gazing into the window of a buttered toast-loving pig's home. DiCamillo (Flora and Ulysses) is certain to please her "Mercy Watson" fans with this first title in the new spin-off series. Arthur Morey's narration is spot-on, especially Leroy's lazy Southern drawl. The Roy Rogers-style music is an added bonus. Yippee-ki-yay!-Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City Schools, OH (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Leroy Ninker, the "reformed thief" from this team's Mercy Watson books, still makes ends meet serving popcorn at the Bijou Drive-In Theater but dreams of being a cowboy. Sporting a cowboy hat, lasso, and boots, he watches raptly the Wednesday night Western double-feature but makes little progress otherwise. Then he receives some advice from a colleague: "Every cowboy needs a horse." After purchasing "old but good" and "very exceptionally cheap" Maybelline and inspecting her hooves and teeth (and finding four of each), Leroy throws himself into horse-ownership completely. Unfortunately, acquiring a horse and keeping one turn out to be two different challenges, but Leroy rises to the occasion in his own way, whispering sweet nothings into Maybelline's ear and preparing pot after pot of spaghetti for her. Spot art, full-page art, and double-page spreads with Van Dusen's characteristic shiny-faced characters infuse the plot with extra energy and expression. Part cowboy story and part pet love story, this multi-layered tale beautifully balances comically exaggerated details and true spirit. Mercy Watson fans will enjoy being back in the saddle in this slightly more advanced spin-off. julie roach (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
New York Review of Books Review
FROM AMELIA BEDELIA'S cheery misinterpretations to "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and its impertinent bird hoping against hope for the impossible, delusions fuel a certain stripe of hero. Early chapter books - and here we have three by much-lauded children's book authors - offer the perfect bridge between the freewheeling dreams of picture books and the serious narratives of longer fiction. These characters come by their delusions honestly and do not force the issue. And the more we indulge in their scattershot dreams, the more we want to believe in them too. In the case of "The Chicken Squad: The First Misadventure," by Doreen Cronin and the illustrator Kevin Cornell (the creators of the J.J. Tully Mystery series), a world-weary retired search-and-rescue dog introduces us to four little troublemakers: Dirt, Sugar, Poppy and Sweetie may look like baby chicks, but they have ambitions far beyond mere scratching and pecking. With dialogue straight out of a '40s film noir, they take on the case of a squirrel who has seen something "big and scary." After some interrogation it emerges that the squirrel has seen something large, circular and noisy (in the squirrel's own words, "it interrupted the atmosphere"). If a chicken can rush to a conclusion a chicken will rush to a conclusion, and these chickens are immediately convinced that a chicken-stealing U.F.O. is in their midst and that it's up to them to take it down. Needless to say, the supposed U.F.O. is a mere barbecue grill, and the chicks' efforts to destroy it ramp up the tale to maximum amusing chaos. Cornell's illustrations give life to the chicks and their individual personalities. Each one pursues his or her own agenda, though they are often united in a common cause. Like four small, fuzzy, yellow Don Quixotes, they see giants in windmills or, in this case, aliens in backyard grills. Don Quixote also certainly comes to mind in the case of Leroy Ninker in "Leroy Ninker Saddles Up," by the Newbery Medal winner Kate DiCamillo, with illustrations by Chris Van Dusen. (The two collaborated on the Mercy Watson series.) Leroy may harbor delusions of grandeur, but they are sweeter, softer yearnings than the chickens'. Leroy isn't having a midlife crisis. He's having a life crisis. Employed at the concession stand of the Bijou Drive-In Theater, Leroy dreams of becoming a cowboy. When Beatrice the ticket seller points out that he lacks the requisite horse, he sets out to procure one immediately. He imagines acquiring an impressive creature he can call "Tornado." What he gets is Maybelline, an old, four-toothed equine who comes with her own set of rules. It's love at first sight. DiCamillo, who is also national ambassador for young people's literature, has always been at her best when dwelling on the good and the bad in relationships between humans and animals, and Van Dusen knows precisely how best to present Leroy to us. Seen here, the incipient cowboy is short and needle-nosed, but displaying that gleam you find only in the eyes of people pursuing their desires. When Maybelline disappears because of his negligence, he must take his fate into his own hands and then he must "wrestle it to the ground." Leroy's possible delusions instead transform him into a man honestly living his dream. We can laugh at how he goes about fulfilling it, but if he's perfectly content at the end of the day, isn't the laugh really on us? DIGBY O'DAY OF "Digby O'Day in the Fast Lane" has a dream as well, but it's less grand than the desire to live life on the range. Possessing a car that he loves just as much as Leroy loves Maybelline, Digby and his best friend, Percy, intend to win the local All-Day Race from Didsworth to Dodsworth. His rival, a saucy little minx named Lou Ella, has the audacity to purchase a new car every year and to mock Digby for sticking with his own beloved jalopy. With permission to go "by any route you choose," what follows is an amusing adventure through the countryside, ending with a lovely pot of tea. It is a very British affair. Digby's tale attempts an exciting feel but unfortunately lacks much in the way of verve. Even the art by Clara Vulliamy (daughter of its author, the beloved English children's book writer and illustrator Shirley Hughes) stays neatly contained within the walls of the story. Both "The Chicken Squad" and "Leroy Ninker" are spinoffs from other popular series, yet both feel as though they are boldly striking out in new directions. Digby, in contrast, meanders about pleasantly, disinclined to do much that would strike a reader as the least bit unexpected. It's charming, but what Digby lacks is the passion that comes with doing what you love. It's the passion that spurs the chickens on to attack backyard equipment while camouflaged in grass clippings. The passion that inspires Leroy to charge through his neighborhood without hat or lasso in his slippery socks to find his missing horse. The passion that will encourage reluctant readers and early readers to keep turning those pages. Pages that will, in turn, help them to create more dreams than delusions, we hope. BETSY BIRD is a librarian and the author of the picture book "Giant Dance Party." She is a co-author of "Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature," published this month.
