“Our dad is a magician, / who can make a bird go poof, / but the day he cooked us pancakes, / he made an awful goof.” In his first picture book, Many (My Life, Take Two, 2000, etc.) cooks up a humorous rhyme about a magician who bungles breakfast. When he uses the wrong cookbook (it’s really a book of tricks), the pancakes take on a life of their own and the three children help chase the fugitive flapjacks as they roll right into town. Lush brushstrokes and shadowy images create drama as Goto’s (Shoeshine Whittaker, 1999, etc.) full-bleed illustrations chronicle the action. In the opening spread, one son yawns, the daughter smirks, and only the littlest child looks amused as the father juggles flour, milk, and sugar. “We’d seen this trick a thousand times,” they say. But when blue sparks envelope the mixing bowl and batter shoots into the flaming frying pan, they know something is different. Saucer-sized pancakes take over the town. They blend into the scenery, becoming the steering wheel on the bus, wheels on a taxicab, and medallions on a fancy hat. In one surreal scene, pancakes rain down as a man and woman in black suits, bowlers, blood red ties, and mirrored sunglasses march by holding giant pancake umbrellas. Back home, the children finally find the real cookbook. The father reverses the spell, turning the pancakes back to batter. “ ‘I’ll fry you up another stack,’ ” he says. “But we said, ‘No! Just watch!’ / Then we toasted frozen waffles / right from the soggy box.” A rhythmic, rip-roaring romp. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8027-8795-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2002
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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