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GIZMO

Name: GIZMO
Author: Barry Varela
ISBN: 978-1-59643-115-7

by Barry Varela & illustrated by Ed Briant ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2007

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Engineering becomes art in this sprightly tale of a huge but useless machine saved from the wrecking ball. Written in rhymed free verse, the tale opens with Professor Ludwig von Glink waking one morning with an idea for a perpetual-motion device. He’s wrong—but so entrancing is his mechanical gizmo that he decides “to work up some specs / and see if I can make this / mingle-mangle of intricate / jury-rigged gimcrackery / yet more complex.” Cheered on by his wife (dressed, as he is, in a lab coat) and five children, the Professor proceeds to wreath the entire house in gears and rods, pulleys, slides and pinwheels. Then a hard-nosed Building Inspector shows up. Using quick strokes of pen and brush, Briant creates buoyant, increasingly crowded cartoon scenes featuring a magnificent construct that almost conceals the house around and through which it snakes—and which is saved by the last minute appeal of the City Contemporary Art Museum’s strong-minded Director. Like another recent iteration of the theme, Dayle Ann Dodds’s Henry’s Amazing Machine (2004), illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker, the unusual language adds great read-aloud potential. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-1-59643-115-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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WINNING WAYS IN SOCCER

by Janet Grosshandler & photographed by Janet Grosshandler ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1991

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An introduction for young children, featuring large action photos in full color, an easy text, and an appended note for parents. Grosshandler describes and illustrates the (minimal) equipment needed, rules, field positions, ways to move the ball, penalties, and safety practices, then takes readers quickly through a game between two young, mixed teams. Like the author's Everyone Wins at Tee Ball (1990), this will give prospective players, and their parents, a good idea of what they're getting into. (Nonfiction. 6-8)

Pub Date: May 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-525-65064-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1991

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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CROCODILE GENE AND HIS FRIENDS

by Eduard Uspensky & translated by Nina Ignatowicz & illustrated by Vladimir Shpitalnik ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1994

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When lonely Crocodile Gene advertises for friends in the paper, a nondescript animal named Floptop and a little girl named Gail respond. The three of them are so satisfied with their newly formed friendship, they decide to match up all the lonely souls in the world. It's no easy task finding companions for characters as lacking in personality as the ones presented by Uspensky (The Little Warranty People, p. 709, etc.). A monkey who has difficulty talking, a bully who is failing in school, and a giraffe who loses friends in holes are among the many applicants. Floptop suggests building a ``House of Friendship'' where everyone can come make friends, and, despite the interference of the crotchety old hag, Fedora, and her pet rat, the edifice is completed and the friendship problem resolved. Everyone finds a suitable partner. Although this Russian story deals with comradeship, its flat characters and flagging plot make it an imperfect companion for the solitary reader. (Fiction. 6-8)