“Yo! Bozo boy!” It’s another hilarious collection of palindromic cartoons from the master of them all. Agee (Potch & Polly, p. 811, etc.) serves up such zany fare as “Kafka’s Restaurant”—“Wonton?” asks a customer; “Not now,” replies a black turtlenecked-waiter—and “The Artist”—who tries a number of configurations for a piece of pipe: “Tie it. / Tip it. / Put it up,” only to discover commercial futility: “Want it?” “Naw.” If some palindromes seem familiar from earlier efforts, others are truly inspired in their complete and joyful irrelevance: “A dog, a pan, a pagoda”—who else would have thought to put them together? Most cartoons take the form of four-panel strips that march across the landscape-oriented double-page spreads; where single-page cartoons exist, they are typically paired with others of similar ilk (“A car, a man, a maraca” appears opposite the pan in which sits the dog and the pagoda). Page turn after wacky page turn results in the inevitable speculation as to the type of fevered brain that might produce these fancies; an author’s note modestly claims only half of the 170 palindromes contained herein, and gracious credit is given to the creators and inspiration for the others. But there is a darker side to the fun: a cartoon hints at the possible strain suffered by those cursed with aibohphobia (an unusual fear of palindromes)—a wide-eyed man lies in bed, trapped in the infinite repetitions of “Six is a six is a six. . . .” Good at least for several minutes of chuckles, these spirited cartoons may inspire readers young and old to find linguistic and artistic opportunity in gnu dung. (Picture book/nonfiction. 10+)
Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2002
ISBN: 0-374-35730-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002
A world-class charmer, Clements (The Janitor’s Boy, 2000, etc.) woos aspiring young authors—as well as grown up publishers, editors, agents, parents, teachers, and even reviewers—with this tongue-in-cheek tale of a 12-year-old novelist’s triumphant debut. Sparked by a chance comment of her mother’s, a harried assistant editor for a (surely fictional) children’s imprint, Natalie draws on deep reserves of feeling and writing talent to create a moving story about a troubled schoolgirl and her father. First, it moves her pushy friend Zoe, who decides that it has to be published; then it moves a timorous, second-year English teacher into helping Zoe set up a virtual literary agency; then, submitted pseudonymously, it moves Natalie’s unsuspecting mother into peddling it to her waspish editor-in-chief. Depicting the world of children’s publishing as a delicious mix of idealism and office politics, Clements squires the manuscript past slush pile and contract, the editing process, and initial buzz (“The Cheater grabs hold of your heart and never lets go,” gushes Kirkus). Finally, in a tearful, joyous scene—carefully staged by Zoe, who turns out to be perfect agent material: cunning, loyal, devious, manipulative, utterly shameless—at the publication party, Natalie’s identity is revealed as news cameras roll. Selznick’s gnomic, realistic portraits at once reflect the tale’s droll undertone and deftly capture each character’s distinct personality. Terrific for flourishing school writing projects, this is practical as well as poignant. Indeed, it “grabs hold of yourheart and never lets go.” (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-82594-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
This profoundly moving story is all the more impressive because of its basis in fact. Although the story is fictionalized, its most harrowing aspects are true: “Today, more than two hundred million children between the ages of five and seventeen are ‘economically active’ in the world.” Iqbal Masih, a real boy, was murdered at age 13. His killers have never been found, but it’s believed that a cartel of ruthless people overseeing the carpet industry, the “Carpet Mafia,” killed him. The carpet business in Pakistan is the backdrop for the story of a young Pakistani girl in indentured servitude to a factory owner, who also “owned” the bonds of 14 children, indentured by their own families for sorely needed money. Fatima’s first-person narrative grips from the beginning and inspires with every increment of pride and resistance the defiant Iqbal instills in his fellow workers. Although he was murdered for his efforts, Iqbal’s life was not in vain; the accounts here of children who were liberated through his and activist adults’ efforts will move readers for years to come. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85445-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
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