A bit awkward to follow considering its length and orientation but truly a grand tour
An extraplanetary visitor’s city visit literally unfolds in this unusually formatted panorama.
Presented on a 12-foot-long vertical strip that has been rolled up and pressed flat, the itinerary moves down from high towers at the beginning though zigzag streets and winding canals and eventually into deep subterranean reaches. Each successive flip adds both a block of descriptive narrative and new streets and sights for the intergalactic tourist and for kneeling viewers (a hallway or large room will be required to see this in its entirety) to discover simultaneously. Along with lots of amusing details and side activity, there’s also a seek-and-find element, as the green extraterrestrial, recurring in each segment, is just one tiny figure among many. So warm are the welcoming rounds of parades and other festivities from the city’s residents—all of whom are notably diverse in skin color and dress—that the ET asks to stay on. Drama and romance ensue as the new immigrant is temporarily “overpowered by a praline” but then meets and marries a mermaid. So off the two honeymooners course, past a smiling monster at the city’s lowest point and beyond the bottom corner. Dieudonné’s scenes are festooned with tiny, active figures (including interracial and possibly same-sex couples as well as some instances of ethnic stereotypes). Still, they don’t look overcrowded, and despite flattened, sometimes skewed perspectives, the seamless transitions add to her composition’s overall visual unity.
A bit awkward to follow considering its length and orientation but truly a grand tour . (Novelty. 6-9)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-500-65069-1
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some...
With a little help from his audience, a young storyteller gets over a solid case of writer’s block in this engaging debut.
Despite the (sometimes creatively spelled) examples produced by all his classmates and the teacher’s assertion that “Stories are everywhere!” Ralph can’t get past putting his name at the top of his paper. One day, lying under the desk in despair, he remembers finding an inchworm in the park. That’s all he has, though, until his classmates’ questions—“Did it feel squishy?” “Did your mom let you keep it?” “Did you name it?”—open the floodgates for a rousing yarn featuring an interloping toddler, a broad comic turn and a dramatic rescue. Hanlon illustrates the episode with childlike scenes done in transparent colors, featuring friendly-looking children with big smiles and widely spaced button eyes. The narrative text is printed in standard type, but the children’s dialogue is rendered in hand-lettered printing within speech balloons. The episode is enhanced with a page of elementary writing tips and the tantalizing titles of his many subsequent stories (“When I Ate Too Much Spaghetti,” “The Scariest Hamster,” “When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me,” etc.) on the back endpapers.
An engaging mix of gentle behavior modeling and inventive story ideas that may well provide just the push needed to get some budding young writers off and running. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0761461807
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
When Bibi, her first and favorite babysitter, moves away, it takes all of August for 8-year-old Eleanor to get beyond her sense of loss and get used to a new caretaker. Her parents grieve, too; her mother even takes some time off work. But, as is inevitable in a two-income family, eventually a new sitter appears. Natalie is sensible and understanding. They find new activities to do together, including setting up a lemonade stand outside Eleanor’s Brooklyn apartment building, waiting for Val, the mail carrier, and taking pictures of flowers with Natalie’s camera. Gradually Eleanor adjusts, September comes, her new teacher writes a welcoming letter, her best friend returns from summer vacation and third grade starts smoothly. Best of all, Val brings a loving letter from Bibi in Florida. While the story is relatively lengthy, each chapter is a self-contained episode, written simply and presented in short lines, accessible to those still struggling with the printed word. Cordell’s gray-scale line drawings reflect the action and help break up the text on almost every page. This first novel is a promising debut. Eleanor’s concerns, not only about her babysitter, but also about playmates, friends and a new school year will be familiar to readers, who will look forward to hearing more about her life. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8424-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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