Books by Doreen Cronin and Complete Book Reviews
Doreen Cronin, illus. by Juana Medina. Viking, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-670-78578-0
Writing in short, emphatic phrases, Cronin (the Click Click Moo books)
introduces Smick, an eminently playful dog who happily shows off his best tricks. Newcomer Medina does a remarkable job of encapsulating Smick’s essential dogginess in just a...
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Doreen Cronin. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $16.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-4814-3525-3
A trip to Coney Island to ride the Cyclone roller coaster ends in tragedy for 12-year-old Nora and her 13-year-old cousin, Riley. Moments after their ride, Riley has a stroke and is rushed to the hospital, leading to the discovery of an undiagnosed...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Scott Menchin, Illustrator , illus. by Scott Menchin. S&S/Atheneum $12.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-689-86375-2
Youngsters can't be expected to sit still while listening to this energetic read-aloud featuring an animated doggie who wiggles in a variety of situations—some comically outlandish. At times zigzagging across the pages, Cronin's (Click,
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Scott Menchin, Illustrator , illus. by Scott Menchin. S&S/Atheneum $14 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4169-1627-7
In this charming follow-up to Wiggle
, Cronin, Menchin and their doggie hero guide readers in life lessons as a series of literal ups and downs. "If you bounce into a puddle
," the chipper canine says as he leaps off a lamppost à la...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Scott Menchin, Illustrator , illus. by Scott Menchin. S&S/Atheneum $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4169-5341-8
The highly kinetic canine hero of Wiggle
and Bounce
is back, this time showing off some yoga-style stretches and more: “Can you stretch to the ceiling? Can you stretch to the floor?” he asks, the words themselves stretching to fit over
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Doreen Cronin and Scott Menchin, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-06-112871-4
Newbie, the aptly named trainee of the tough-minded Rescue Bunnies, is eager to prove she has what it takes to become a full-fledged member. She gets her chance when a giraffe gets stuck in the mud in the middle of hyena country. There’s just one...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Kevin Cornell. S&S/Atheneum, $12.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-4424-9676-7
This loopy mystery kicks off the Chicken Squad series, a spinoff of Cronin and Cornell's J.J. Tully Mysteries that is skewed to even younger readers. Retired search-and-rescue dog turned detective J.J. takes a minor role in this outing, leaving the...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Kevin Cornell, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $14.99 (128p) ISBN 978-0-06-121532-2
Cronin, best known for her witty barnyard picture books, Click, Clack, Moo and its successors, brings her droll humor to the chapter book set with great success. After seven years as a search-and-rescue dog, J.J. Tully (possibly a German shepherd)...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Betsy Lewin. Atheneum, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5344-1449-5
When Farmer Brown receives a letter requesting that he and the farm animals visit Dinkelmeyer Elementary School, he is excited: “He had not been to school in a very, very long time!” The cows, chickens, and pigs are eager as well, until Farmer Brown
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Betsy Lewin. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4814-4496-5
Little Duck has big plans for Valentine’s Day in this exuberant addition to Cronin and Lewin’s long-running series. Cronin has fun detailing Little Duck’s preparations (“She tied balloons to... everything. She hung streamers from... everything”), as
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Betsy Lewin. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4814-7031-5
In this addition to the series that began with Click, Clack, Moo, it’s Little Duck’s birthday, and the farm animals are busy getting ready. Cronin merrily describes their preparations in repeating language (“The chickens take a dust bath to look...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S/Atheneum, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4814-2411-0
After a lively baby duck is born on the farm, the animals from Click, Clack, Moo and its sequels try to turn its “peep peep peep” into “peep peep... sleep” at bedtime. Lewin’s always expressive watercolors show sleep-deprived hens and sheep rocking...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-6553-4
Farmer Brown has endured a lot in Cronin and Lewin’s Click, Clack, Moo series, and in this sixth book, he’s up against a holiday he hates, Halloween: “Witches give him nightmares. Pirates give him shivers.” He’s in the minority on the farm, though,...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Betsy Lewin, Illustrator Simon & Schuster $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-83213-0
Plucky barnyard denizens unite to improve their working conditions in this hilarious debut picture book from Cronin (appropriately enough, an attorney). Farmer Brown is dumbfounded when his cows discover an old typewriter in the barn and begin...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Betsy Lewin, Illustrator , illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S/Atheneum $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-1630-7
It's another interspecies battle of wits—and read-aloud winner—from a celebrated duo. This time, Farmer Brown is trying to put together a fabulous Statue of Liberty corn maze. But the ever-subversive Duck has different ideas—an
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Betsy Lewin, Illustrator , illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S/Atheneum $16.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-689-84507-9
What do you get when a bunch of farm animals decide to enter a talent contest to win... a trampoline? Sounds like the latest joke at the watercooler, but it's just Cronin and Lewin (of Click, Clack, Moo
fame) at it again, with an off-the-wall...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Betsy Lewin, Illustrator , illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S/Atheneum $12.95 (24p) ISBN 978-0-689-87716-2
Fast on the webbed feet of Click, Clack, Quackity Quack: An Alphabetical Adventure
comes this counting companion, again starring Duck as the instigator of mischievous, though well-intentioned fun. As the farmer naps on the couch near his soothing...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Betsy Lewin, Illustrator , illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S/Atheneum $12.95 (24p) ISBN 978-0-689-87715-5
It's funny business as usual down on the Brown farm, as droll Duck and those literate cows from Cronin and Lewin's Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type
return in this conceptual romp for younger readers. It seems the cows have tapped out their...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Betsy Lewin, Illustrator , illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-689-86377-6
As the run-up to the 2004 presidential election gathers momentum, it appears that George W. Bush may have more than Democrats on his tail. Duck, the ever-scheming star of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
has thrown his feathers in the ring. Fed-up
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Betsy Lewin, Illustrator, Betsy Lewin, Photographer , illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-84506-2
The barnyard animals first seen in Cronin and Lewin's Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
continue to express themselves via the written word in this clever and funny sequel. When Farmer Brown takes a vacation and leaves his brother Bob in charge
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by David Small. S&S/Atheneum/Dlouhy, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-0620-9
This smart, subversive fairy tale is set in a kingdom whose palace is made entirely of glass and whose inhabitants scorn dirt and untidiness. The kingdom was once home to a red-haired fairy named Bloom, whose magic could “spin sand into glass, turn...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Laura Cornell. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-4169-6150-5
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Cronin (Rescue Bunnies) offers children detailed advice on how to better understand and deal with one’s mother. This troubleshooting guide provides step-by-step instructions for addressing moms who don’t get...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Betsy Lewin. S&S/Atheneum, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-9673-6
If the sight of Duck—outfitted with night-vision goggles, climbing spurs, and a Santa hat—ziplining across a cold winter’s night toward Farmer Brown’s chimney doesn’t provoke laughs and smiles, then the War on Christmas is as good as over. Cronin...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Harry Bliss, Illustrator , illus. by Harry Bliss. HarperCollins/Cotler $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-000156-8
Cronin and Bliss follow up their bestselling Diary of a Worm
and Diary of a Spider
with a heroine so delightful it would be criminal to swat her. Fly, a purple girl with multifaceted green eyes, chronicles her childhood, from anxieties about the...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Harry Bliss, Illustrator , illus. by Harry Bliss. HarperCollins/Cotler $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-000153-7
Cronin and Bliss repeat the comic ingredients that made Diary of a Worm
so successful in this rib-tickling sequel. This time the diary is written by Worm's friend Spider and filled with similar verbal high jinks, deadpan humor and visual jokes...
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Doreen Cronin, Author, Harry Bliss, Illustrator , illus. by Harry Bliss. HarperCollins/Cotler $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-06-000150-6
Cronin's beguiling journal entries by a worm who can write are as witty and original as the missives from her popular cows who can type (Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type). With his red baseball cap and good-natured humor, the titular hero is a...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Renata Liwska. Viking, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-670-78575-9
This is a much subtler and gentler offering than Cronin’s (Click, Clack, Moo) previous picture books, making the illustrator behind The Quiet Book a fitting collaborator. The title names the story’s three characters: Boom is a restless, impulse-drive
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Stephen Gilpin. S&S/Atheneum/Dlouhy, $12.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-4814-5046-1
This third book in the Chicken Squad series finds the investigative team of Dirt, Sugar, Poppy, and Sweetie trying to solve a mystery involving a box made of wood and wire that has appeared in the yard. Dirt, whose mix of no-
nonsense gruffness and...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Brian Cronin. Rocky Pond, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-61830-1
Pale-skinned young Lawrence is reluctant to head “out there,” beyond his small cottage’s backyard (“Out there was very big. Out there was very loud”). In desaturated images with electric-hued highlights, Brian Cronin (The Lost House) shows Lawrence...
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Doreen Cronin, illus. by Brian Cronin. Rocky Pond, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-5936-9820-4
Baby Sloth loves sleeping nestled high up in a tree “between/ his mama/ and the moon.” When he tumbles to the ground, the tangerine-hued puffball lands in “a soft patch” of foliage, but he’s nevertheless beyond forlorn in the inky darkness....
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