by Cornelia Funke ; illustrated by Kerstin Meyer ; translated by Oliver Latsch ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 2014
Training wheels for Funke’s future fans.
Emma and her dog, Tristan, steal down to the moonlit sea for some quiet time and find a mysterious bottle bobbing on the waves; inside, of course, is a genie.
Karim can’t grant wishes; he’s the one who needs help. Evil genie Sahim stole his nose ring, source of his power, and imprisoned him in the bottle. Emma, Tristan and Karim head via flying carpet for Barakash, where Sahim now rules, to recover the nose ring and free the city’s caliph and citizens. Meyer’s whimsical art is packed with quirky details and expressive humor (the supercilious dromedary’s a delight), neatly enhancing Funke’s droll humor. First published in Germany in 2002, this entertaining tale has plenty of charm, but it will have an uncomfortable aftertaste for some. This Disney-fied Arabian Nights territory draws from the well of Western popular culture, where normal is fair and cute, exotic is dark and comically alien, and color’s a reliable indicator for good and evil. The flying carpet and palace are beautiful; the caliph’s grandmother is “a big woman with a beard and blue patterns on her face.” With tight word counts, restrictive vocabulary and language parameters, chapter books rely on their audience to fill in details from shared cultural assumptions. In an increasingly diverse society, notions of what is normal and what is exotic to readers call for frequent reassessment.
Training wheels for Funke’s future fans. (Fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-37540-5
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
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PROFILES
by Suzy Kline ; illustrated by Amy Wummer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 27, 2018
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode.
A long-running series reaches its closing chapters.
Having, as Kline notes in her warm valedictory acknowledgements, taken 30 years to get through second and third grade, Harry Spooger is overdue to move on—but not just into fourth grade, it turns out, as his family is moving to another town as soon as the school year ends. The news leaves his best friend, narrator “Dougo,” devastated…particularly as Harry doesn’t seem all that fussed about it. With series fans in mind, the author takes Harry through a sort of last-day-of-school farewell tour. From his desk he pulls a burned hot dog and other items that featured in past episodes, says goodbye to Song Lee and other classmates, and even (for the first time ever) leads Doug and readers into his house and memento-strewn room for further reminiscing. Of course, Harry isn’t as blasé about the move as he pretends, and eyes aren’t exactly dry when he departs. But hardly is he out of sight before Doug is meeting Mohammad, a new neighbor from Syria who (along with further diversifying a cast that began as mostly white but has become increasingly multiethnic over the years) will also be starting fourth grade at summer’s end, and planning a written account of his “horrible” buddy’s exploits. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fitting farewell, still funny, acute, and positive in its view of human nature even in its 37th episode. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47963-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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by Emily Calandrelli & Tamson Weston ; illustrated by Renée Kurilla ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 29, 2017
The story feels a bit contrived, but Ada will be a welcome addition to the small circle of science-loving girls in the...
Using science and technology, third-grader Ada Lace kicks off her new series by solving a mystery even with her leg in a cast.
Temporarily housebound after a badly executed bungee jump, Ada uses binoculars to document the ecosystem of her new neighborhood in San Francisco. She records her observations in a field journal, a project that intrigues new friend Nina, who lives nearby. When they see that Ms. Reed’s dog, Marguerite, is missing, they leap to the conclusion that it has been stolen. Nina does the legwork and Ada provides the technology for their search for the dognapper. Story-crafting takes a back seat to scene-setting in this series kickoff that introduces the major players. As part of the series formula, science topics and gadgetry are integrated into the stories and further explained in a “Behind the Science” afterword. This installment incorporates drones, a wireless camera, gecko gloves, and the Turing test as well as the concept of an ecosystem. There are no ethnic indicators in the text, but the illustrations reveal that Ada, her family, and bratty neighbor Milton are white; Nina appears to be Southeast Asian; and Mr. Peebles, an inventor who lives nearby, is black.
The story feels a bit contrived, but Ada will be a welcome addition to the small circle of science-loving girls in the chapter-book world. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-8599-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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by Emily Calandrelli with Tamson Weston ; illustrated by Renée Kurilla
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