ALA Booklist

For those who think there's nothing new under the middle-grade fiction sun, try this: a hard-boiled 12-year-old businessman named Ernie whose latest venture is pet funerals. Assisted by the artistic Dusty, who makes caskets out of shoe boxes and suitcases, and Swimming Pool, hired to be a professional crier, Ernie's business is booming. Swimming Pool is using her money to help out a runaway brother; Ernie just loves money. But thanks to previous undertakings, Ernie's dad has put the kibosh on business dealings, so the whole deal's on the Q.T. But when Ernie's dog, Mister Doggie, is on its last leg, the comfort of a good funeral hits home. This work was originally produced as a play for children, and Cooney does a fine job of transposing what must have been amusing visuals on stage into a well-formed narrative with witty dialogue. The pace of the book, however, is uneven: some scenes are too long; others, especially the ending, are too short. But this highly stylized novel is something kids won't have seen before, with characters who seem to have jumped out of a Damon Runyon story. The fabulous cover, featuring Ernie, Dusty, and Pool huddled around a gravestone (Ernie's on his cell phone), is reminiscent of Robert McClosky's work in Homer Price, and interestingly, despite the difference in time and place, the two books have a similar sensibility.

Horn Book

Ernie begins a pet funeral business, hiring a boy to build increasingly elaborate caskets and a girl to cry during the services. Ernie finds himself dealing with labor issues (the crier wants a raise) as well as his own dog's impending death. The narrative meanders between mawkishly sentimental moments and over-the-top scenes in which the kids speak like Damon Runyon characters.

Kirkus Reviews

Recast from a prizewinning stage production, this patchy tale of a young entrepreneur has a satiric edge that will play better to adult audiences. Ever on the lookout for moneymaking opportunities, young Ernie Castellano hits paydirt when he converts an empty lot into a pet cemetery. Thanks to some high pressure sales tactics, plus a hired staff than includes Dusty, a nerdy but loyal artist with a genius for turning junk into elaborately decorated coffins; Swimming Pool, quaintly introduced as a "tomboy," who discovers an innate talent for feeling a bereaved pet owner's pain; and Tony, a "scrappy" eight-year-old boy-with-a-shovel, the funeral biz is soon booming. It's not hard to see this show's theatrical roots in the thoroughly typecast characters and in snappy, Little Rascals style dialogue (Tony: " It's not complicated. When I got a gig, I gotta dig. That's my motto. I'm an independent contractor' ") that Cooney's interpolated narrative passages only serve to slow down. Most of all there's a string of stagy set pieces that end with Ernie and his Dad both grieving in the wake of Ernie's Mom's death from cancer, growing closer by decorating the grave of the family dog together. Young readers are unlikely to give this a standing ovation, but the broadly brushed comedy and sentiment may draw an occasional chuckle or tear. (Fiction. 10-12)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A young entrepreneur known for his get-rich-quick schemes uses an empty parking lot to start a pet funeral business in what PW called """"a likeable story with solid appeal."""" Ages 8-12. (Aug.)

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-The charming Norman Rockwell-style kids on the cover illustration will attract readers to this comedy about 12-year-old entrepreneur Ernie Castellano. It was originally a play produced by the Lincoln Center Institute and the playwright was asked to adapt it as a novel for children. Reminiscent of Robert McCloskey's Homer Price, Ernie is smart and creative, and his ideas generally produce hilarious results. Even though his father threatens to ground him if he continues to take advantage of people, when Ernie's mother dies and he realizes that funerals aren't free, this natural-born salesman decides to start a full-service funeral business for neighborhood pets. Along with Dusty, who designs elaborate coffins, and Swimming Pool, a tough tomboy who is the official crier, Ernie clears a vacant lot. He uses a cell phone to pick up those lucrative calls about expired bunnies, iguanas, and ant-farm colonies, and business booms until Ernie reneges on his promised raise to Swimming Pool. He's not the nicest of bosses. Only after his own dog dies and his father discovers what he's up to does Ernie realize that there is more to life than making money. His father allows one last funeral, Mister Doggie's, at which father and son grow closer in their grieving over the boy's mother, and Ernie realizes that his real knack is in bringing people together. Witty, clever, yet touching, this first novel has certain kid appeal.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.