Less than the sum of its parts, this effort to educate young listeners about aspects of Egyptian culture while simultaneously celebrating the love of a young boy for his pet never quite comes together. Austen’s text is straightforward. A sentence on the left page describes the goddess Isis’ appearance, role and history, while the right-hand page offers an observation, usually cleverly linked, about the unnamed narrator’s cat. These provide some humor but will be appreciated more by adult readers than children. For example, “Isis and Osiris had a baby who became the sky god, Horus,” is immediately followed by “We had my Isis spayed.” Sophisticated vocabulary and concepts further distance young listeners, who may be confused by the fact that Isis and Osiris are brother and sister and have little context to understand the notion that they “gave people agriculture, law and civilization.” Cleverly designed to resemble scraps of parchment, the illustrations of the goddess are effective and evocative. Cat Isis and her owner don’t fare so well, and the artwork only reinforces the failure of the text Made from a mix of photographs, paper, paintings and pen-and-ink illustrations, textures are intriguing and proportions generally correct, but the glassy eyes give the beloved cat a slightly creepy look, while the boy winds up looking unfortunately like a burn victim. An intriguing effort that misses the mark. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55453-413-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
At best a low-rent alternative to Jennie Maisels’ Pop-Up London (2012).
A tour bus assembled from punch-out parts caps a whirlwind spin from the Tower to Buckingham Palace.
In a truly perfunctory storyline, newly arrived visitors Panda, Fox, and Donkey (leading a cast that, except for one alarmingly flushed royal, is all animal) find a letter to the Queen from her “first great grandchild, George.” Not knowing where she lives, the trio gads about from the Natural History Museum to the Tower, rides the Underground and the London Eye, pops into Madame Tussaud’s to view a “waxwork” model, and at last tracks the grateful royal recipient down. The higgledy-piggledy itinerary will defeat prospective young tourists, and even actual Londoners may have trouble recognizing the landmarks that are crammed into the garish, crazy-quilt cartoon illustrations (not to mention the taxis with steering wheels on the left). Just to make the general cheapness complete, the tour-bus model is not only complicated and tricky to assemble, but printed on such light card stock that it likely won’t survive being “driven” more than a meter or so.
At best a low-rent alternative to Jennie Maisels’ Pop-Up London (2012). (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78445-312-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Top That Publishing UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Excellent first introductions to some of our planet’s most common fellow residents.
An invitation to zoological investigations around the house and yard, with a gratifyingly large, detachable, pop-up spider as a special treat.
Dubbing her arthropod subjects “minibeasts” (“creepy crawlies” is so judgmental), French first suggests checking a few rooms for spiders, then venturing outdoors for further likely-to-be-successful searches for daddy longlegs, woodlice, centipedes, and millipedes. She describes each creature’s salient physical characteristics in simple but precise language, along the way tucking in both thoughtful side notes (drape a towel over a sink’s edge to allow a trapped minibeast to escape, for example) and a couple of very elementary crafts. Woodward’s realistically done paper-collage portraits give way to photos in a closing gallery of (mostly big) spiders and related wildlife…which may help prepare more-squeamish readers for the hand-sized 3-D orb weaver that can be plucked from the rear cover and opened out. Publishing simultaneously, Fluttering Minibeast Adventures takes investigators out to a pond with an insect net and a few other props to examine moths, butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies—both in adult and earlier stages of their life cycles. The featured pop-up is a stylized painted lady. In both outings the author artfully demonstrates ways of studying these animals without touching them while communicating an unforced enthusiasm for getting as close as need be to watch them in action.
Excellent first introductions to some of our planet’s most common fellow residents. (index) (Informational pop-up picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4052-7756-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Red Shed
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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