Stick

March 12, 2007
Editorial cartoonist Breen makes his children's book debut with this lighthearted tale about a determined young frog who must experience everything for himself. The opening series of panels depicts a parent offering suggestions that clearly fall on deaf ears: "Stick liked to do things on his own... all by himself," reads the text as the young hero lands on a turtle's back ("Oops"). When Stick suddenly finds that his tongue has become stuck to a dragonfly, which carries him aloft, he fails to realize the precariousness of his situation. Breen's panel illustrations transport readers along with the green fellow, through the swamp, to a bustling New Orleans and beyond. It's Breen's detailed artwork that supplies the heft to this tale with few words. Observant readers will pick up Breen's ode to the Deep South, peppered with a witty tone, as in the "Ragin' Cajun" tattoo on a motorcyclist or the "wiggly piggly" roadside billboard. He also captures the beauty of the scenery, especially in the spreads of wetlands with live oaks, which serve as Stick's habitat. At story's end, youngsters will be pleased that the precocious fledgling adventurer has made it back home, while parents may appreciate the message that young ones sometimes need to leave the pond in order to gain a sense of the big picture. Ages 4-up.

May 1, 2007
PreS-Gr 3-Stick is a young frog with a very long tongue and a hunger for adventure. One day he zaps a dragonfly, his tongue sticks to the insect, and hes carried off along the Mississippi River and into New Orleans. After being dropped onto a horses nose and flicked back into the air, Stick attaches his tongue to a balloon bouquet for a scenic city tour. Drifting back to the country, he has several more airborne escapades before jumping onto a seagulls beak for a ride above the Gulf of Mexico. Finally dropped onto a dock, hes alone and scared. He asks a heron for help and the bird flies him home to his mother. Hungry, he zaps a firefly instead of a mosquito and takes on the bugs glow (Oops). Done in watercolors, acrylics, colored pencil, and Photoshop, the artwork is large, detailed, and colorful. The illustrations vary in size and layout, mixing close-ups of Stick with broader action shots and aerial views of the changing landscape. With a frenetic pace and loads of humor, the art perfectly conveys the frogs childlike exuberance and the storys lighthearted mood. An appended map traces Sticks journey. A fun, filled-with-thrills romp."Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2007
Little frog Stick is a daredevil who likes to explore the world on his own. One day, though, he gets a bit carried away--literally. While trying to snag a dragonfly for lunch, Stick's tongue gets stuck to the insect's belly, and he is pulled from his lily pad, straight into the air. With minimal words, Breen's appealing paint-and-pencil pictures fill in the story of Stick's adventures, as he is pulled from swamp, to neighborhood, to downtown "jazzy city" (New Orleans), and then out to the highway, where he hitches a ride with a bird, who carries him home to his comforting mother. The story is slight, but Breen generates plenty of fun and suspense in the skillfully rendered, animated pictures, many of which are presented from a bird's-eye view. A final scene, in which Stick swallows a firefly and begins to glow, will leave kids chortling, even as they may recognize themselves in young Stick, whose innocent curiosity sometimes leads to trouble.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)