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SEEING IS BELIEVING

Name: SEEING IS BELIEVING
Author: Gareth Moore
ISBN: 978-1-4677-6345-5

From the Brain Benders series

by Gareth Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2015

Visually appealing starter volumes for readers who take pleasure in giving their powers of perception and deduction a...

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A slender but diverse gallery of line and color illusions, with bright, crisply printed graphics.

Following an introductory overview, Moore presents three or four examples for each of nine types of optical foolery. There are parallel lines that don’t look it, geometric shapes that only seem to be different sizes, illusory color changes, “persistence of vision” spots, and perspective switches such as the vase-or-faces image. His accompanying commentary verges on overexplanation, as readers are not only told with each example how to look or move and what they can expect to see, but are then provided with additional hints and explanations at the end. In companion title Think Outside the Box, he challenges viewers to match a key to one of a set of schematic tumblers, trace a maze without using a pencil, and other tricky eyes-only puzzles—though again the answers are at the back. Other volumes in the Brain Benders series newly available in this country, It’s Only Logical and Not So Ordinary, offer further mental exercises.

Visually appealing starter volumes for readers who take pleasure in giving their powers of perception and deduction a workout. (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4677-6345-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Hungry Tomato/Lerner

Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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JAKE THE FAKE KEEPS IT REAL

From the Jake the Fake series , Vol. 1

by Craig Robinson & Adam Mansbach ; illustrated by Keith Knight ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2017

A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid.

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Black sixth-grader Jake Liston can only play one song on the piano. He can’t read music very well, and he can’t improvise. So how did Jake get accepted to the Music and Art Academy? He faked it.

Alongside an eclectic group of academy classmates, and with advice from his best friend, Jake tries to fit in at a school where things like garbage sculpting and writing art reviews of bird poop splatter are the norm. All is well until Jake discovers that the end-of-the-semester talent show is only two weeks away, and Jake is short one very important thing…talent. Or is he? It’s up to Jake to either find the talent that lies within or embarrass himself in front of the entire school. Light and humorous, with Knight’s illustrations adding to the fun, Jake’s story will likely appeal to many middle-grade readers, especially those who might otherwise be reluctant to pick up a book. While the artsy antics may be over-the-top at times, this is a story about something that most preteens can relate to: the struggle to find your authentic self. And in a world filled with books about wanting to fit in with the athletically gifted supercliques, this novel unabashedly celebrates the artsy crowd in all of its quirky, creative glory.

A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: March 28, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-553-52351-5

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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THE SINGING ROCK & OTHER BRAND-NEW FAIRY TALES

by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer ; illustrated by Simini Blocker ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 18, 2019

Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...

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The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.

Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”

Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)