A healthy step beyond typical catalogs of touristic highlights but not parochial Eurocentrism
Tantalizing selections of local sights for prospective young visitors decorate aerial maps of 30 world cities.
Though close in both concept and look to Maggie Li’s Big City Explorer (2016), this overview of the world’s great cities is concocted with a more active form of tourism in mind. “Go crazy for Portuguese custard tarts,” Cherry invites visitors to Lisbon. “Wander around the Praça do Comércio,” or “hitch a ride on the funicular, Elevador da Glória.” Or “visit the ZKP Tagansky Cold War Museum” in Moscow, “see a show at the Museo Argentino del Títere puppet Museum,” or “feed the deer in Seoul Forest.” Along with stylized but recognizable buildings and natural features, Haake scatters on each highly simplified street map a mix of people, animals, art, and several tiny seek-and-find items for viewers to pick out. Prospective travelers may come away with the idea that almost all the women in Rio wear bikinis and other odd impressions (“Try some of the world’s best bagels” in Montreal? Fugeddaboudit!), but in the American and even Scandinavian cities, variations in skin tone at least hint at diverse populations. There are a few errors too: New York’s F.A.O. Schwartz has closed. More problematically, over half of the chosen cities are in Europe and only three in the U.S.; China is represented by Hong Kong and all of Africa by Cape Town alone.
A healthy step beyond typical catalogs of touristic highlights but not parochial Eurocentrism . (Informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: July 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84780-701-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Trisha is ready to start at a new school, where no one will know she has dyslexia. At first, she is heartbroken to be in Miss Peterson’s special-ed class, aka, “the junkyard.” But Miss Peterson treats the children as anything but junk, showing them that everyone has a unique talent. Polacco’s trademark style is fully present here; her sensitively drawn alter ego shines with depth of feeling. When bullying occurs, Miss Peterson proves her students are worthwhile by planning a junkyard field trip, where they find valuable objects to be used in exciting ways. Trisha’s group repairs a plane, and the class buys an engine for it. Then a beloved class member dies, and the children must find a way to honor him. While the plot meanders somewhat, the characters are appealing, believable and provide a fine portrayal of a truly special class. Children will be drawn in by the story’s warmth and gentle humor and will leave with a spark of inspiration, an appreciation of individual differences and a firm anti-bullying message, all underscored by the author’s note that concludes the book. (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-399-25078-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
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)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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