When Grizzorka the witch “catnaps” Grandmother Katt’s cat, Tabithia, Grandmother decides to get her cat back, with the help of some creepy, but intrepid pals—Bat, Frog, and Spider, who have their own reasons for retaliation. The witch tries to defeat her enemies by throwing them down a deep hole, locking Tabithia in a cage, and tossing the key to the bottom of the lake. The spider’s spinning skills, the frog’s swimming abilities, and the bat’s radar all play crucial roles in helping Grandmother Katt through her ordeals. Grizzorka retreats in despair and the four friends rejoice with a Halloween bash. This fun tale mentions scary things but won’t frighten children, in part because its cheery, bold colors liven up the deep holes, dark caves, and other spooky scenes. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1395-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
From levitating frogs to giant vegetables that take wing, Wiesner resuscitates his fondness for flying in another stretch of his imagination. In a wordless story told through picture panels and murals, a young boy is overtaken by fog on a class field trip to the top of the Empire State Building. He befriends a snowmanlike cloud who dons the boy’s red cap and scarf and wings him to an ominous factory in the sky. Dubbed Sector 7, this imposing, industrial hunk of machinery is a Grand Central Station for clouds, from which they’re all dispatched. The boy learns that clouds can freely take on various shapes, and soon has them twisting and stretching themselves into fish, to the dismay of the grim, uniformed workers. In a showy display, the clouds invade Manhattan, surprising cats at windows and children below. Wiesner’s fans will rediscover all his favorite motifs—dreams overlapping reality, metamorphosing creatures, and more—rendered in precise watercolors with tilted perspectives. Others will find themselves scratching their heads as to his purpose, other than indulging in elliptical displays and in pointlessly defying convention. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-74656-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Eduar (Jooka Saves the Day, 1997, etc.) composes here a classic dreamtime walkabout, a wonder quest, that starts when Anatole the bactrian camel begins to read from his “ancient book” and the boy Jules drifts off to sleep between the camel’s humps. Anatole is on the move, swimming the Southern Sea, surfing through crashing breakers, getting lost in the jungle outside Quito, scaling peaks, outrunning lightning. All the while, Jules snoozes peacefully away. Eduar catches the action in rhyme, one sentence to a page, with Anatole’s dashing feats on the left, and Jules’s torpor noted on the right: “Anatole rides bravely along a wire from the trees./Jules is kissed by an orchid-scented breeze.” The artwork is up to the energy and the exoticism of the tale, with great cymbal-crashes of vivid color conjuring a thunderstorm, a foaming sea, a busy street. Despite such charged images, the book works as a lullaby: Jules may bounce around the world, but still he slumbers on. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30202-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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