It’s a playful, even psychedelic feast for the eyes, but don’t get it for the story.
Attendees at a convention of extraterrestrials mingle with equally strange, large-headed children as young Zubert rides with his mother in her van to deliver flowers to the best hotels in London.
While waiting for her in the lobby of the “smartest hotel of all,” Zubert becomes involved in a mission to rid the hotel of pesky animals in advance of an imminent visit from the hotel inspectors. Snoring Spinglefranks, a herd of blue, bespectacled buffalo, and a gaggle of troublesome monkeys are shooed from the rooms; a giant octopus is removed from the swimming pool; and all kinds of destructive pests are expelled from the kitchen. There, a perfect meal is prepared for the inspectors thanks to Zubert’s quick wits and the “slightly magic” powers of the Spinglefranks. The hotel inspection is completed, and the inspectors are satisfied, unaware of all the hijinks going on around them. There’s a lot to look at and signs to read in these fanciful cartoon illustrations, filled as they are with intriguing and sometimes-mysterious details. The endpapers in grayscale charmingly depict the hotel’s lost-and-found cabinet, which is filled with insects, food and artifacts. Perhaps acknowledging its second-banana status to the illustrations, the all-uppercase text is too small and sometimes hard to find on the page.
It’s a playful, even psychedelic feast for the eyes, but don’t get it for the story. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84976-121-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tate/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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