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
Once they stop laughing at the spot-on depiction of standardized testing, teachers should take a page from Mrs. Hartwell’s...
Mrs. Hartwell is back (First Year Letters, 2003, etc.) in a gentle satire on teaching to the test.
It’s a Monday at the end of a really great school year. The kids have learned a lot and had fun along the way, but it’s time now for the dreaded standardized test. But first, they need to learn how to show what they know. On Monday, they practice sitting still. Tuesday’s lesson is on bubble-filling, and Wednesday finds the class taking a timed practice test. Throughout, Mrs. Hartwell finds that she is writing a lot of passes to the nurse’s office—the students can’t take the pressure. And so on Thursday, Mrs. Hartwell tosses her lesson plans and leads her nerved-up class to the library for a little relaxation. Danneberg’s tongue-in-cheek humor is definitely in evidence as she describes the rigors of getting ready for a standardized test and the maladies that arise in anxiety-ridden students. Love’s ink-and-dye artwork captures the varied expressions and body language of a classroom full of students, from a finger-down-the-throat gesture of disgust to the pride on their faces at having learned so much.
Once they stop laughing at the spot-on depiction of standardized testing, teachers should take a page from Mrs. Hartwell’s book. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58089-360-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lubberly addition to the fleet, kept afloat by its pictures.
Light scrapings of pirate lore are delivered by two children dressed to the hilt for their roles and leading a ragged but distinctly nonfearsome crew.
Billy and Belle are playing pirates at the beach. Transformed into swashbuckling buccaneers by the flip of a half-page, they proceed to offer ingenuous disquisitions on the nature and history of piracy (“Did you know many pirates steal from other people because they are very poor?”). They also cover piratical dress, behavior, shipboard tasks and lingo, followed by a spot of smoky but nonviolent plundering. Then it’s time to go ashore for a quick chantey, a matching game that encourages drawing lines between pirate heads and hats, and a set of review questions (“What’s the leader of a pirate ship called?”). The text isn’t much more than inconsequential ballast (“It is considered bad luck for girls to be on board a pirate ship. That’s why girl pirates dress up as boys”). Nevertheless, the cleanly drawn, brightly hued cartoon illustrations—climaxed by a double-gatefold cutaway view of a capacious ship crewed by cheery idlers—sail along airily enough to keep budding buccaneers entertained.
A lubberly addition to the fleet, kept afloat by its pictures. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60537-135-1
Page Count: 30
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012
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