Mr. Hulot may not be as well-known on this side of the pond as the Little Tramp or Buster Keaton, but he definitely merits a...
Twenty-two comical, wordless mini-episodes in sequential panels pay terrific tribute to a classic Chaplin-esque character created by actor/filmmaker Jacques Tati for a series of French movies.
Depicted as a nattily attired gent sporting a long pipe and umbrella that often serve as props, Hulot turns Parisian settings into places of magic or play. In “The Crossing,” a crosswalk becomes a series of crevasses to leap; a misguided snowball leads to a general melee in “The Snowball Effect”; shown the No Smoking sign on a bus in “Pipes Allowed,” Hulot responds by blowing bubbles. In other encounters, he props his umbrella in a tree to shelter birds on a rainy day, bends to admire a flower and thus moons a passing official and, trying his hand at plumbing repair, causes water to shoot out of all sorts of unexpected places. Merveille relates each of the loosely linked incidents in a half dozen or so neatly drawn and colored panels capped, after a page turn, with a large, single-panel twist or punch line. Enriching the silent narratives further, he frequently tucks in droll visual jokes or pairings that even less-sophisticated viewers will easily spot and certainly chortle over.
Mr. Hulot may not be as well-known on this side of the pond as the Little Tramp or Buster Keaton, but he definitely merits a seat in the same row. (afterword) (Graphic picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4135-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.
Hannah Hadley is a young special agent who must thwart a clear and present danger to the United States in Hoover’s “smart is cool” young adult novel.
Hannah Hadley might seem like most 13-year-old girls. She enjoys painting, playing with her MP3 player and spending time with friends. But that’s where the similarities end. Hadley doubles as Agent 10-1, among the youngest spies drafted into the CIA’s Div Y department. She’s joined in her missions by her 10-pound Shih Tzu, Kiwi (with whom she communicates telepathically), and her best friend Tommie Claire, a blind girl with heightened senses. When duty calls, the group sneaks to a hidden command center located under the floor of Hadley’s art studio. Her current mission, aptly named “Operation Farmer Jones,” takes her to a secluded farmhouse in Canada. There, al-Qaida terrorists have gathered the necessary ingredients for a particularly devastating nuclear warhead that they intend to fire into America. The villains are joined by the Mad Madam of Mayhem, a physicist for hire whom the terrorists force to complete the weapon of mass destruction. With Charlie Higson’s Young James Bond series and the ongoing 39 Clues novellas, covert missions and secret plans are the plots of choice in much of today’s fiction for young readers, and references to the famed 007 stories abound in Hoover’s tale. But while the plot feels familiar, Hoover’s use of modern slang—albeit strained at times—and gadgets such as the iTouch appeal to today’s youth. Placing girls in adult situations has been a mainstay since Mildred Wirt Benson first introduced readers to Nancy Drew in The Secret of the Old Clock, but Hannah Hadley is like Nancy Drew on steroids. Both are athletic, score well in their studies and have a measure of popularity. Hadley, however, displays a genius-level intellect and near superhuman abilities in her efforts to roust the terrorists—handy skills for a young teen spy who just so happens to get the best grades in school.
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0615419688
Page Count: 239
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A mermaid is born with two tails, and a boy is born with webbed fingers in this lengthy original fairy tale. They suffer the tribulations that are the lot of the different: ridicule and shunning. Neither has friends, and they are both delivered unto a circus sideshow presided over by the shrill and heartless Ring Mistress (drawn with marcel wave and pinched mouth). The two begin to wither in their own ways, until fate draws them into close association and they discover their similarities; not just the webbed fingers but something deeper and elementally innocent binds them. George’s narrative is ethereal and formal, with a voiceover quality that invests the artwork with cinematic flow. Halpin’s curious combination of aggressively cherubic, if somewhat characterless, faces and emotive, atmospheric settings benefits from this. It says much for the writing that it carries the reader along, despite the bonding of the mermaid and the boy being foregone, their escape destined (though that’s a drawn-out affair in which the illustrations can’t corral all the action). The epilogue has an unexpected, romantic twist—heroic, adventurous, idealized—that bodes well for a sequel. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897476-53-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Simply Read
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
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