A peaceful, wordless adventure that, as the final frames hint, will continue after it’s closed.
Through a magical book, two faraway children meet.
This wordless picture book picks up directly where The Red Book (2004) left off: the third illustration in this is almost identical to the last one in the previous, with a tiny smile added. This time, a black child wearing a blue hoodie and glasses is the finder of the titular red book. The child bikes home through city snow and climbs the stairs of a quirky, cupola-topped house. Opened, the red book’s pages feature increasing close-ups that reveal a beige-skinned child in a fishing boat afloat off a faraway island. That child pulls in a similar red book from the sea and opens it to see the bespectacled city kid back at home. They’re looking at each other! Wordlessly, they form a mutual fondness. The kid in the boat finds an ingenious way to cross the world to their new friend—not through the book (it’s not that kind of magic) but, delightfully, towed by a pelican. There’s sadness and doubt during a brief period when the kids can’t see each other, and then there’s joy. Lehman’s illustrations are structured like comic panels, varying in size and shape and surrounded by white space; in watercolor, gouache, and ink she shows figures and landscapes with gentle textures and neat black outlines.
A peaceful, wordless adventure that, as the final frames hint, will continue after it’s closed. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-81859-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Moderately inspired but tired all the same.
Pizzoli’s young cat, Templeton, gets what he wishes for, with predictable results.
Templeton is the eldest kitten in the house, so he is the beneficiary of all the usual stuff: demanding parents—“Scrub harder, Templeton!” “Clean up this mess!”—and a trio of brothers who take his favorite toys. He comes across an advertisement in a comic book for a magic diamond that grants wishes. “So he did something bad”—robbing a brother’s piggy bank—“and got something good in return.” That’s some rough philosophical ground, though it is also the most original—if disturbing—turf turned in this otherwise foreseeable tale. Templeton wishes his family gone; they disappear; he revels: playing, singing, lounging, making a mess of the house and himself. No more demands, no more sharing. Then things get boring, scary at night, stinky, and lonely. He wishes his family back, and back they come, same as they ever were, which is fine with Templeton: same demands, same sharing. Pizzoli brings extremely simple language to the task, and so too for the artwork, though here the complementary colors set eyeballs vibrating, and Templeton radiates a hepcat appeal. But the piggy-bank heist never gets revisited, ill wishes don’t get explored, and no twist gives the old story some fresh air.
Moderately inspired but tired all the same. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1274-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
Not Maisy’s finest exploit but likely to excite an “ARRRR!” or two from scurvy knavelets who can’t get enough of the...
Avast! On a pop-up pirate ship, punch-out figures of Capt. Maisy and her crew set sail in search of a treasure chest (also punch-out).
More toy than tale, this alternative to Maisy’s Pirate Treasure Hunt (2004) offers perfunctory scene setting on three opening spreads before getting to the main event: on a base designed to lie flat, a two-piece ship with unfolding sails beneath a pair of big flaps. Budding buccaneers can peer into the vessel’s nether regions through the split as well as place the four figurines either on board or into a punch-out dinghy. All four figurines, along with several nondetachable crewmates, are attired in properly piratical garb save an elephant who models skull-and-crossbones patterned shorts. An inset pocket provides handy storage for the loose parts when it’s time to close the covers.
Not Maisy’s finest exploit but likely to excite an “ARRRR!” or two from scurvy knavelets who can’t get enough of the redoubtable rodent. (Pop-up playscape. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7941-5
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
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