Four ticky-tacky decorations-a flamingo, a gnome, a lawn jockey, and a deer with half an ear-ponder their future when their owners move away. They miss Pearl, the girl who "knew that they were real," and they face other threats: "Å'If we stay here,' said Betty, 'the new owners may store us in the garage-or, worse...' 'The curb!' they all said." Mindful of being mistaken for garbage, they leave the downscale cottage in search of Pearl's new gated community, Ritzy Estates. Yaccarino (The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau) gives the ornaments salt-of-the-earth names-Flo, Betty, Norm, and Jack-and places them in droll situations, which often appear in side panels, lending the tale a storyboard quality. During their journey, the four pose as water features in a fountain, walk along stacked like the Bremen Town Musicians, and get directions from Paul Bunyan. Other gnomes, RV-park flamingos, and racetrack jockeys also temporarily distract them, but they persevere. In sinuous contemporary art, Yaccarino humorously considers the secret lives of inanimate objects and lampoons the vagaries of taste: "Some people didn't love lawn ornaments the way Pearl did." Ages 5-9. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

After their friend Pearl moves, four tacky lawn ornaments hit the road looking for her new home in Ritzy Estates. Betty (a deer), Flo (a flamingo), Norm (a garden gnome) and Jack (a jockey, Caucasian) must stick together during an arduous journey and evade the dreaded trash truckonce a trash truck takes an ornament, "it never comes back!" The colorful gang meets both creepy and helpful statuary along the way: Gargoyles follow them, gnomes offer assistance, a fast-food burger-boy points the way. Yaccarino offers young readers a world of cool duality, in which objects alternately talk, feel and moveand then don't. Illustrations, although vivid, communicate only freeze-frame flatness, making the ornaments appear caught in halted animation and reinforcing the book's magic. Bustling adults remain oblivious to the statues' conversations, travels and communities, while child readers see everything. Young readers will relish experiencing and knowing something that adults do not or can not. Although many children might not have seen lawn ornaments before, Yaccarino's endearing, earnest characters are worth getting to know. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In a plot that hearkens back to Toy Story, seemingly inanimate objects left behind during a move go out into the world and find their grateful owner. The four objects here are lawn ornaments: a flamingo, jockey, troll, and deer. Pearl, the little girl whose lawn they have been ornamenting, has a tea party with them at the start of the book but then somehow leaves without them. On their journey to Pearl's new home, the ornaments focus on avoiding trash trucks and end up meeting lots of other statuary. Other lawn gnomes and flamingos are very friendly, but a gang of creepy gargoyles follows Pearl's friends until a brave moose statue comes alive and chases the gargoyles away. Yaccarino's clean, bright illustrations have an appealing retro look, and the trek through suburbs, swamps, fields, and city is a visual treat. The book's ending is fairly predictable (a child-lawn ornament reunion), but the last twist (the ornaments get through the gated community's gates via a trash truck) is a keeper.--Nolan, Abby Copyright 2009 Booklist

PreK-Gr 2-A group of lawn ornaments-a flamingo, a gnome, a jockey and a deer-fear abandonment by their human, Pearl, who has moved. Even worse than simply being left behind would be the "curb," the dreaded trash heap for things like them that no one wants anymore. And so the statues embark on a dangerous trek across town to find Pearl and reestablish their place in a new home. Witty dialogue is expressively read by Kirby Heyborne. He assumes a distinctive voice for each character, helping differentiate among them, which could have been a challenge in the absence of Yaccarino's bright, humorous, picture book illustrations. Happily, the lawn ornaments are reunited with their young owner in the satisfying conclusion to this short tale.-Maria Salvadore, formerly of the Washington, DC Public Library (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.