A comical and cinematic tale centers on the budding friendship between a bullied young vegetarian and a carnivorous alligator with water issues (thanks to being flushed down a toilet when small). Available for purchase and reading exclusively through the publisher’s app, this digital edition reads well enough on a tablet or PC despite being a reduced scan of the quarto paper edition. Placing his figures in clearly defined panels, Burks, an animator for Disney and other studios, uses a simply drawn cartoon style and a limited color palette to create an open, retro look suitable to the quickly moving story line. Most of the panels are wordless, and where there is dialogue it’s terse, large and legibly hand-lettered. Though two full-spread scenes require a page “turn” to view, the story is best read in portrait orientation, as all of the other panels are single-page or less, and some include written notes or printing that becomes too small to read in double-page landscape mode. Readers expecting razzle-dazzle animation should look elsewhere: The app delivers no special features beyond the ability to purchase the publisher’s manga and graphic novels in digital format. Regardless, on either paper or screen, young readers will enjoy following these unlikely partners as they help each other work through personal hang-ups while evading a Taser-wielding Animal Control officer. (iPad graphic-novel app. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7595-3145-1
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Yen Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
A hamster with an irritating lack of social skills fails to alienate a cast of small woodland creatures in this strange import. Looking more like an undersized koala in Martin’s simply drawn scenes, Hamster opens with a wish that “in the heavens and on earth [a]ll will praise an extraordinary hamster,” then goes on to explain in his diary how much everyone adores him, to disinvite Rabbit to his birthday party, to blow off a shy confession from Mole and so on—until at the culminating party he takes a bow after belittling everyone’s gifts. Meanwhile, the animals gather to mull such Big Questions as whether worms can shed tears of joy. Within each of her large sequential panels, the illustrator surrounds small figures with generous quantities of flat, uniformly colored green ground and blue sky, punctuated by the occasional tree or shrub. All that wide-open space focuses attention on the dialogue, which sometimes offers insights into the character of each member of the cast but too often falls flat: “Squirrel…a nut. Just one? Hmmm, not so great, so let’s just forget about it.” Yes, let’s. (Graphic picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: July 20, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59270-093-6
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The dream phantasms of a high-spirited narrator intersect, even crowd, reality, but the stream-of-consciousness text makes for a rambling, radically personal tale. Playful images of a stuffed lion, trampoline, purple shoes, and a cat named Pine-Cone take hold in a young girl’s imagination, despite her “old” mother who makes her go to bed when she’d rather “stay up early” and a big sister with a cranky disposition. At home, she likes counting flea bites and pretending to be a worm, but is afraid of the dark and going to Grade One. The second half of the book takes off in a separate first-day-of school direction. Wild dreams precede the big day, which includes bullies on the playground and instant friend Chelsea. The childlike articulations of the text are endearing, but not quite of universal interest, and don’t add up to a compelling story; children may more readily warm to Gay’s illustrations, which include a dreamlike flying cat, a menacing hot dog, and an uproarious stuffed toy looming over everyday domestic scenes. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1999
ISBN: 1-55143-107-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
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