Space Cadet Topo and his trusty sidekick Tinny Bot Girl set off to rescue the universe after the sun goes dark and cold. DGPH represents the trio of Argentinean designers who created Molestown, an animated game on the Internet, images from which have been used in prints, toys, T-shirts and accessories worldwide. This, the first book in English to use Molestown characters, features a standard video-game plot and some very loose science, including the curious idea that the sun warms our whole galaxy. Several pages are devoted to introducing the neighborhood, Topo’s home in the Donut Station, his job and the robots that help him, but eventually the story, “Mission 215,” begins. Topo has one hour to turn on the sun. Full-bleed full-color cartoons show them zipping through deep space to the last planet in the galaxy to retrieve the burning matchstick called “the galactic flame” and back to descend deep into the sun, facing down the monster guardian of the sun’s core, in order to relight its fire. Only for pre-existing fans of the game and merchandise this book so nakedly shills. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59702-022-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Immedium
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
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Anja and her dog, Birki, do their best to get to a Christmas party in a frozen Nordic landscape.
Anja wishes she had a dog sled to harness Birki to in order to get to the party. The next morning, her cousin Erik appears with his dog sled and an offer to take her there. Lost in a blizzard, they encounter talking wolves who take them to a tent where they can spend the night. A baby polar bear named Tiny appears, separated from his mother. The following day takes them all on an adventure through glaciers and fjords, past an ice castle, and finally to Tiny’s mother and to the party. This digitally produced book is illustrated with photographs that capture the Nordic setting. Unfortunately, the overall effect is weirdly flat, with elements awkwardly set together in images that lack depth. A polar bear perches awkwardly on top of oddly scaled pack ice; Anja and Erik spend a night in the ice castle in niches chiseled into the wall, but they seem oddly disconnected from it. The book has an old-fashioned, European feel; the white, blond children’s red caps and traditional clothing stand out against the dim, bluish winter light. But the wooden, overlong text does little to cultivate the magical fantasy feeling that it’s aiming for.
For fans of Evert and Breiehagen’s Wish Book series. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6566-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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Princess Magnolia’s perfect birthday party’s threatened by constant monster alarms, summoning her secret identity again and again.
Prim, proper Princess Magnolia is all decked out in her pink finery, awaiting the arrival of a dozen ethnically diverse fellow-princess party guests for her birthday when her monster-alarm ring goes off. She changes attire and personas, becoming the heroic Princess in Black. Working swiftly, she saves a goat from a hungry monster and gets back to her palace in time to welcome her guests. But just when she thinks she’s in the clear and ready to open her presents, off goes her monster-alarm ring again! This pattern—Magnolia is just about to open presents when her alarm goes off, she comes up with a distraction for the princesses, defeats a monster, and returns just in time—continues through the book. It’s enhanced by visual gags, such as Magnolia’s increasingly flustered appearance, and hilarious depictions of the various ways monsters try to eat goats, from between giant pieces of bread to in a giant ice cream cone. A side character, the fittingly named Princess Sneezewort, frequently comes close to discovering Magnolia’s secret. In the end, Magnolia can’t take the constant interruptions anymore, yelling at a monster that it’s her birthday—the monster, abashed, ends up helping her in one last distraction for the other princesses.
A chuckle-inducing, entirely worthy stand-alone follow-up to the terrific The Princess in Black (2014). (Fantasy. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6511-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
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