Along the lines of Blexbolex’s Seasons (2010), an immersive visual experience that richly rewards patient attention.
An Italian illustrator makes his U.S. debut with an impressionistic record of an annual cycle along the Po River.
In hundreds of long, narrow, quickly brushed watercolor panels stacked horizontally four per page, Sanna follows a four-season round. Nearly all of the paintings are landscape sections with reeds, stands of poplars or small silhouetted figures of local residents in the foregrounds and vivid, changeable skies blending into the misty river behind. Along with depictions of broad natural rhythms, each seasonal chapter contains several mininarratives—wordless, aside from a few allusive remarks at each section’s opening. They range from preparations and responses to a flood in “Autumn” to a sagra (holy day) carnival in “Spring.” In “Summer,” a melodramatic physical encounter between a plein-air painter and an escaped tiger turns metaphorical at the end. Other visual bonbons for attentive viewers to catch include parallel falls of snowflakes in winter and flower petals in spring, the Nativity-like birth of a calf and even glimpses—twice!—of elephants.
Along the lines of Blexbolex’s Seasons (2010), an immersive visual experience that richly rewards patient attention. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-9, adult)Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59270-149-0
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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