Dan White

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley.)

Cindy is a scrappy little latchkey kid with an overactive imagination, which is forever landing her in trouble. She daydreams of monsters when she should be paying attention in class, and disappears into the woods surrounding her house well into the evening, much to her mom's exasperation.

Cindy and her ever-loyal best friend Biscuit get into all sorts of adventures, most of which involve saving the world: from aliens, werewolves, mummified mermaids, abominable snowmen, swamp ghosts, inter-dimensional monsters, you name it. When the one-eyed creature who has been haunting Cindy's dreams pulls Cindy and Biscuit into its world, the girl and her pup go missing IRL. Can our heroes find their way back home?

Even though there is a main plot here, CINDY AND BISCUIT: VOLUME 1 feels more like a collection of loosely connected vignettes, some only a few pages long. The different stories are somewhat interesting, and give White a chance to showcase a variety of Big Bads (my favorite are the sentient snowman who hunts down his creator, i.e., Cindy, and an altercation with an abominable snowman that ends in a snowball fight ... not to mention the werewolf with a heart of gold).

CINDY AND BISCUIT has two things going for it: White's spectacular (and spectacularly creepy) artwork and, of course, a dog. (I am forever a sucker for a canine sidekick.)

On the downside, the collection feels a bit ... loose? Like it could use a tighter plot to weave all its brilliantly colored threads together.… (más)

The book was well researched and written in an engaging style. But for such a long and detailed work, I thought a number of angles on -- perhaps decades of-- modern-day camping were overlooked. For example, the back-to-the-land movement was essentially camping on steroids. White is speaking to the motorhome crowd, it seems. Granted I lost patience and didn't continue reading as closely as necessary to fully absorb his message, but my sense was that the author jumped from roughing it to motor homes. He could've also included the vast army of homeless people in the US who are camping out of necessity.… (más)

Pure fun. From the comfort of my couch I took great pleasure in reading about Dan White's adventures while hiking the 2,650+ mile Pacific Coast Trail from Mexico to Canada. With his girlfriend Allison for companionship Dan's account is in turn both funny and didactic. He can be snarky and scholarly in a single sentence. What starts out as an avoidance of the real world turns into a journey of self reflection and maybe, just maybe, a little growing up.
What makes Cactus such a pleasure to read is this is Dan's account of the first time he hiked the PCT. He has no idea what he's doing, despite reading up on it in the months leading up to the hike. He isn't a seasoned through-hiker expertly navigating arid blazing hot deserts. He isn't a blase professional warding off bear visits with a ho hum attitude. He is cocky in his naivete.… (más)