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MR. BLEWITT’S NOSE

Name: MR. BLEWITT’S NOSE
Author: Alastair Taylor
ISBN: 0-618-42353-2

by Alastair Taylor & illustrated by Alastair Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2005

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When helpful young Primrose Pumpkin finds a human nose on a park bench—“something you rarely see on an average street in a normal town on a humdrum sort of day. At least, not on its own”—she naturally sets out to find its careless owner. Her quest is complicated by the fact that her dog Dirk stinks—and, in the bright, daubed acrylic illustrations, often looks—like a fresh pile of dung, because everyone the pair meets immediately staggers away. Ultimately, though, it’s Dirk who facilitates the reunion of nose and noggin, by clearing a stadium full of spectators, except for the olfactory-oblivious Blewitt. Though the vagrant schnoz recalls such tales as Saxton Freymann’s Dr. Pompo’s Nose (2000) and the Gennady Spirin–illustrated version of Gogol’s absurdist The Nose (1993), this is more likely to draw its most appreciative audience from the clouds of fanning fans surrounding Lisa Kopelke’s Excuse Me! (2003) or William Kotzwinkle’s and Glenn Murray’s Walter the Farting Dog (2001). (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 30, 2005

ISBN: 0-618-42353-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
SWOLLOBOG
by Alastair Taylor & illustrated by Alastair Taylor

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RAPUNZEL

adapted by Rachel Isadora & illustrated by Rachel Isadora ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2008

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
DO I HAVE TO WEAR A COAT?
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

- BOOK REVIEW
MY DOG LAUGHS
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

- BOOK REVIEW
I JUST WANT TO SAY GOOD NIGHT
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

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IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT

by Andrea Beaty & illustrated by David Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2007

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A repressive teacher almost ruins second grade for a prodigy in this amusing, if overwritten, tale. Having shown a fascination with great buildings since constructing a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa from used diapers at age two, Iggy sinks into boredom after Miss Greer announces, throwing an armload of histories and craft projects into the trash, that architecture will be a taboo subject in her class. Happily, she changes her views when the collapse of a footbridge leaves the picnicking class stranded on an island, whereupon Iggy enlists his mates to build a suspension bridge from string, rulers and fruit roll-ups. Familiar buildings and other structures, made with unusual materials or, on the closing pages, drawn on graph paper, decorate Roberts’s faintly retro cartoon illustrations. They add an audience-broadening element of sophistication—as would Beaty’s decision to cast the text into verse, if it did not result in such lines as “After twelve long days / that passed in a haze / of reading, writing and arithmetic, / Miss Greer took the class / to Blue River Pass / for a hike and an old-fashioned picnic.” Another John Lithgow she is not, nor is Iggy another Remarkable Farkle McBride (2000), but it’s always salutary to see young talent vindicated. (Picture book. 6-8)