Review by Booklist Review
The Stanley the Hamster series, first published in Great Britain, features amiable hamster characters inhabiting a childlike world. Myrtle asks Stanley to build her a new house. Using his bulldozer, his digger, and his cement mixer, Stanley clears the land and makes the foundation. He and his helper lay the brick walls, raise the roof, and put the windows in place. After they paint the house and plant flowers, Myrtle thanks the builders. Well! What a busy day! comments the concise text, as Stanley heads home for his supper, his bath, and his bed. Simplicity and good design make this pleasing picture book a riveting choice for young children intrigued by seeing big machines, using hand tools, and building things. In the satisfying digital illustrations, bold black lines and bright colors show up well against the white backgrounds. Like Mr. Small, of Lois Lenski's venerable series, Stanley has a different profession in each volume, including Stanley's Garage, a simultaneously released companion book.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Emphatic text and uncluttered pictures target this series launch to machine-loving early readers. Bee (Digger Dog) introduces Stanley, a good-natured and hard-working hamster, who builds a house for his mouse friend, Myrtle. References to the colors of the machinery Stanley uses and to the process of house-building effectively provide ancillary introductions to colors, construction basics, and various vehicles. After Stanley clears the site with his orange bulldozer and digs the foundation with a yellow digger, his friend Charlie pitches in to help pour cement, lay bricks, raise roof beams, nail shingles, and paint the house red, white, and blue ("Myrtle's favorite colors"). Set against a white backdrop, Bee's flat, clean digital cartoons, framed by thick black outlines, make a bold, graphic impact, and the square trim size and padded cover give the package a satisfyingly chunky feel. Underlying the story are subtle nods to diligence, cooperation, and friendship ("Building houses is hot work! Myrtle has brought Stanley and Charlie some orange juice. Thank you, Myrtle!"). Stanley displays his mechanical skills in Stanley's Garage, out simultaneously. Ages 3-7. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-With some help from his friend Charlie, Stanley the hamster builds a house for his friend Myrtle. Children follow him as he clears the land, digs and pours the foundation, and then builds and paints the house. Myrtle is super pleased with her new home. As a garage owner, Stanley is confronted with a flat tire, Charlie's overheating radiator, an empty gas tank, and Myrtle's car in need of a tow, and he fixes everything with a smile. Both books end with Stanley going home to have dinner and a bath. Each vehicle, be it car or big machine, is identified by its color-green crane, purple car, yellow digger, blue car, etc. Bee's uncluttered and boldly colored illustrations feature thick black outlines and plenty of white space, making everything easy to see. This layout perfectly suits the one or two lines of text (or occasionally no text) found on each page. These simple books are great choices for younger kids to start looking at jobs, identifying colors, and hanging out with Stanley and his mice friends. For slightly older children, these titles could easily serve as early readers.-Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In Bee's new series, Stanley the hamster explores jobs. Stanley the builder builds his mouse friend Myrtle a new house, first using an orange bulldozer to clear the site, then digging the foundation with a yellow digger. Charlie (another mouse, or possibly a rat) helps pour the cement (neither machine name nor color is mentioneda sorry inconsistency), and the two rodents use teamwork to set and level the bricks. A green crane lifts the roof beams. Shingles, windows and paint complete the house, and supper, a bath and bedtime round out what unrealistically appears to be a single day. In Stanley's Garage, the tan-and-white hamster owns a garage and spends the day helping his friendspumping gas, fixing a flat, adding water to an overheated radiator, and towing and fixing a carhis day ending again with supper, a bath and bedtime. Bee's digital illustrations are the real stars here. Against a white background, thick black lines contain the vibrant colors of the simple shapes and characters, making them pop off the pages and both focusing attention and making it easy for little ones to spot familiar items. Stanley and his fellow rodents are adorable, their dot eyes and line mouths expressing emotion, though without much nuance. Nonetheless, little listeners are sure to come back to Stanley over and over, as he explores jobs and uses equipment sure to pique their interest. (Picture book. 2-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
