An unusual, artfully rendered story that will appeal to children as well as adults.
A dark, dreamy tale illustrated with rich, textured collages.
Told in the second person, this fictional picture book uses surreal imagery and poetic language to weave an unusual story of subconscious desires and wishes. “Imagine this, you have always been afraid of gypsies, and for good reasons too,” the story begins, explaining that gypsies carry children away in sacks and take them away from their homes and loved ones. As the story unfolds, Zinganas, the blind king of gypsies, shows up at your door and finds you despite your pitiful attempts to hide. The king tricks you with the false promise of “what you wanted most,” then disappears in the night with the moonbeams from your eyes, leaving you alone to find your way back to them. The book is illustrated with multicolored collages, assembled from pieces of photographs, colors and images that often appear as though they were cut from tissue or textured paper. The illustrations, which vaguely resemble Cubist paintings in their blocklike forms, are easily the book’s most striking feature. An image of Zinganas depicts two crowned figures constructed from fragments of photographed faces, jagged edges and textured blocks of color. Above the scenario hovers a single, closed eye, referencing Zinganas’ blindness, or perhaps the subconscious fears he evokes. In contrast, images depicting the main character appear ambiguous, either showing a blank, simplistic face or avoiding showing it entirely, as such illustrations stand in for any reader who encounters the book. The fragmented images work well with the strange narrative and add an eerie, nightmarish element to the story. The book closes with a gorgeously textured image of children swinging across a crimson background, ending on a mysterious note that will leave readers wondering what happens next.
An unusual, artfully rendered story that will appeal to children as well as adults.Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983826705
Page Count: 19
Publisher: Button-down Bird
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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