PreS-Gr 2-Rosie collects discarded ice-pop sticks and places them carefully in her cigar box. When the lid closes on them, they become animated and wish they could become a horse. At bedtime, Rosie takes them out to play, all the while wishing she could find a way to help her parents pay their bills. Instead she finds herself making a galloping horse out of the sticks and falls off to sleep. In her dreams she and a magical stick horse go off in search of a treasure. They finally find a group of pirates playing with their ill-gotten gains, and she and Stickerino bamboozle the thieves and make off with the plunder. When they return, a treasure chest of gold coins awaits Dad at the breakfast table. Hoban makes use of magical realism to create a story in which the ordinary and the extraordinary exist side by side. Rosie is a fine heroine intent only on helping her parents and her cigar-box sticks are eager for adventure. In the end, this is a satisfying partnership for all concerned. Blake's beguiling art has life and movement on every page and invites children to believe that they, too, are on a magical journey where anything can happen.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Rosie collects ice-pop sticks, and her newest is a dreamer: "I could be something." And it can, transforming into horse Stickerino who transports the girl to magical lands where she finds pirate treasure to pay her impoverished family's bills. Master storyteller Hoban's latest is a strange--charmingly so--fantasy, and Blake's reliably note-perfect pen-and-watercolor art is just as whimsical. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Wishes come true with giddy frequency in this final picture book from Hoban, who died in 2011. A girl named Rosie picks up a discarded ice-pop stick and adds it to her collection, which she keeps in a cigar box. One magical midnight the ice-pop stick collection turns into Stickerino, a flying horse. Rosie longs to pay the mountain of bills that worries her father, and Stickerino takes Rosie over skyscrapers and across desert wastes to a secret pirate hideout full of treasure. Blake's pirates, goggle-eyed and snaggle-toothed, finger their loot with dopey smiles as Rosie and Stickerino approach. Hoban's signature wordplay adds fizz to the treasure-stealing caper. To distract the pirates, Stickerino "disguised himself as an ice-cream cart and jingled his ice-cream tune." When the pirates notice Rosie escaping with a chest of gold, Stickerino "uncarts" himself and turns into a swarm of ice-pop sticks, "stickling" the pirates until they fall about "laughing helplessly." It's the cascade of childhood fantasies fulfilled that make the story such a rousing success. Rosie outwits the pirates with no harm to anyone, saving her household in a single night ("Where did this come from?" her father asks, astonished, about the chest of gold on the kitchen table. "It was a long gallop," she says in response). She rides a magic creature who does her bidding without question ("Where to?" Stickerino asks her. "Anywhere there's treasure," Rosie replies. "No problem," he tells her). Blake collaborated with Hoban on the Whitbread-winning How Tom Beat Captain Najork and other titles, and his ink-and-watercolor drawings are as antic as ever. Rosie's house is cozy and lived-in, with old drawings on the wall, and toys and books crowding her dresser. The pirate scenes are crammed with cheerful chaos, and the light, weightlessness, and long horizons of Stickerino's flight make the impossible seem close. Hoban's books asked big questions, and the answers were sometimes murky and mournful, but this last one is a happy farewell salute. Ages 4-8. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Rosie finds a discarded ice-pop stick and adds it to the others collected in her cigar box. Drawn with expressive little faces, the sticks discuss what they can be without their ice pops. Maybe a horse, muses the new stick. Meanwhile, Rosie overhears her parents say that they can't pay their bills. Longing to help, she falls asleep and dreams of Stickerino, a flying, talking horse that gallops out of the cigar box and takes her on a treasure hunt. The next morning, Rosie surprises her dad with a chest full of gold. While the story has all the improbability of a child's own fantasy, the telling is lively, and the artwork is captivating. When the clock strikes midnight and rises into the air carrying Rosie on its back, the book soars into realms of imagination and hope. Blake's expressive ink drawings with watercolor washes depict, with equal conviction, parents discussing the family's troubles, Stickerino soaring over distant lands, and pirates lining up at an ice-cream cart. A playful, picture-book confection for imaginative children.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist

A little girl finds a discarded ice-pop stick, triggering a surprising adventure in this rib-tickling fantasy. When Rosie discovers a used ice-pop stick, she automatically adds it to the cigar box housing her collection of other ice-pop sticks. The other sticks whine they are "nothing" without their frozen confections, but the sassy new stick boldly asserts he could be something, "maybe a horse." At bedtime, Rosie wishes for a treasure chest to help her parents pay their bills while her fingers arrange the sticks into a horse shape. Midnight arrives, and Rosie awakens when a horse named "Stickerino" gallops out of the cigar box, promising to take her where there's treasure. Rosie and Stickerino fly over cities, jungles, oceans and deserts until they arrive at an ice-pop mountain, where Stickerino "stickles" some pirate toughs while Rosie grabs a treasure chest. Next morning, Rosie presents her amazed father with a chest of gold while the sticks recover from their adventure. Blake's sprightly, quirky signature ink-and-watercolor illustrations vibrate with playfulness and humor as they transport Rosie and Stickerino from their mundane urban world across color-washed pages to a rainbow-hued ice-pop mountain populated with rascally pirates, hilariously tickled into submission by empowered ice-pop sticks. It's an exuberant reminder to dream big, although, sadly, Hoban's text has been Americanized, losing some of its flavor. (Picture book. 4-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.