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Samuels, Barbara
6 Reviews
(4)
K-3
After Sophie and Winston's mom answers an ad seeking a new home for some chickens, the city-dwelling family builds a backyard coop and waits for the fun (read: egg laying) to begin. The book reads less like a story than a how-to manual (an author's note extols the backyard coop), but Samuels wrings humor from (mild) chaos in her spick-and-span illustrations.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
(2)
K-3
Beagle Fred has many kinds of beds: Shopping-Bag Bed (with party hats and noisemakers inside), Pile-of-Old-Newspapers Bed (Fred lies in the kitchen catching dripping cake batter), etc. Sharp-eyed kids will spot the clues to what's happening next. Samuels's art features bright colors and crisp patterns set against white backgrounds, so children can easily find the details that make the book so much fun.
Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 2014
(2)
PS
Truck-lover Leo only has eyes for big rigs; he wants nothing to do with the pet cat, Lola, that Mama surprises him with. After some impressive rescue work (Bunny is trapped in a pretend burning building), Lola wins Leo over. Samuels gets the details of common childhood experiences just right in both the colorful, fine-lined illustrations and the affectionate text.
Reviewer: Kitty Flynn
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
July, 2010
(2)
K-3
Elementary schooler Dolores (Happy Birthday, Dolores!) feels threatened by new-girl Hillary, whose Siamese kitten makes Dolores's cat Duncan look plain by comparison. Dolores and Duncan ultimately shine, but only because Duncan is unstintingly comfortable in his own fur. Samuels's exacting illustrations depict stylish and confident city children who, like Dolores, are probably a whole lot more complicated on the inside.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2007
(3)
K-3
Dolores and her cat, Duncan, are back--sort of: the latter goes AWOL, clearly tired of being used as aspiring ballerina Dolores's practice partner. As usual, the visual jokes and sight gags (readers will be able to spot Duncan even when Dolores can't) and Dolores's Ramona Quimby-like spunk distinguish Samuels's books from much other child-and-pet picture book fare.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
(3)
K-3
Dolores enters her cat, Duncan, in a cat-food contest and assumes she has won the cruise to Hawaii; her pragmatic older sister, Faye, is skeptical ("Duncan won't even eat Meow Munchies"). Because Faye's consoling words when Dolores loses aren't patronizing and because the text and watercolor illustrations are so relentlessly funny (Dolores is quite the hula dancer), this spirited lesson in humility succeeds.
Reviewer: Nell Beram
6 reviews
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