by Bruce McCall & illustrated by Bruce McCall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2008
Beginning with the exhilarating sky-skiing invented by the children of Marveltown, this picture book will thrill budding science-fiction enthusiasts. Marveltown is filled with machines so cool they would make Willy Wonka tingle. Every Saturday the children are given access to the Invent-o-Drome and are free to let their imaginations soar. There’s the Rocket Chair that gets riders to school in six seconds. There’s the Homework Grinder, a metal dog that will eat your homework for a nickel. Then there’s the ever useful bedroom hologram that can fool parents into thinking the room is spotless. Meanwhile, the Skyway Project, an airborne road, is under construction by the electrohydraulic robots. These guys are giant mechanical contraptions who also do lifting, paving and coffee-fetching, until a short causes them to run amuck. Good old kid power prevails: They and their marvelous doohickeys take down the robots. The fantastical gouache paintings awe the eye with taffy colors, depicting a world where Star Wars meets the Jetsons, a place where if you can imagine it, you can make it happen. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-374-39925-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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More by Adam Gopnik
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by Adam Gopnik & illustrated by Bruce McCall
by Kevin Jonas & Danielle Jonas ; illustrated by Courtney Dawson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 29, 2022
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
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by Kevin Jonas & Danielle Jonas ; illustrated by Courtney Dawson
by Lisa Robinson ; illustrated by Lucy Fleming ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2019
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures.
Pippa conquers a fear of the creatures that emerge from her storybooks at night.
Pippa’s “wonderfully wild imagination” can sometimes run “a little TOO wild.” During the day, she wears her “armor” and is a force to be reckoned with. But in bed at night, Pippa worries about “villains and monsters and beasts.” Sharp-toothed and -taloned shadows, dragons, and pirates emerge from her storybooks like genies from a bottle, just to scare her. Pippa flees to her parents’ room only to be brought back time and again. Finally, Pippa decides that she “needs a plan” to “get rid of them once and for all.” She decides to slip a written invitation into every book, and that night, they all come out. She tries subduing them with a lasso, an eye patch, and a sombrero, but she is defeated. Next, she tries “sashes and sequins and bows,” throwing the fashion pieces on the monsters, who…“begin to pose and primp and preen.” After that success, their fashion show becomes a nightly ritual. Clever Pippa’s transformation from scared victim of her own imagination to leader of the monster pack feels fairly sudden, but it’s satisfying nonetheless. The cartoony illustrations effectively use dynamic strokes, shadow, and light to capture action on the page and the feeling of Pippa's fears taking over her real space. Pippa and her parents are brown-skinned with curls of various textures.
A delicious triumph over fear of night creatures. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-9300-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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More by Lisa Robinson
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by Lisa Robinson ; illustrated by Hadley Hooper
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by Lisa Robinson ; illustrated by Lauren Simkin Berke
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by Lisa Robinson ; illustrated by Rebecca Green
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