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VISIT THE BHIL CARNIVAL

Name: VISIT THE BHIL CARNIVAL
Author: Gita Wolf
ISBN: 978-93-83145-11-9

by Gita Wolf ; illustrated by Subhash Amaliyar ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2015

Being just a single spread, it’s a quick visit—but big and busy enough to draw and please several viewers at once.

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A double-gatefold map opens flat to display a pop-up Ferris wheel and other attractions at an annual festival held in the central Indian province of Madhya Pradesh.

A booklet inset at the corner describes the route that excited young visitors Neela and his little sister Peela take, but it can also be traced thanks to labels on the map. First they go to the balloon man, then up on the high, hand-powered wheel. Once down, they proceed past drummers and shops (“HANKIES, coloured HANKIES!” “COCONUT BURFI! TOFFEE! LADDOO!”) to the ice cream man (“CHOC-O-BAR!” he shouts. “PINEAPPLE! PISTA!”). There’s a stop at a photo studio and finally the road home. In the traditional style of his Bhil people, Amaliyar creates an aerial view of carnival grounds crowded with stylized figures depicted in bright primary colors and covered in decorative rows of colored dots. Along with the food, some of the activities on view—a fistfight, bows and arrows pointed in various directions—distinguish this carnival from the typical North American sort (and going unmentioned is the real fair’s marriage market, in which young couples are given an opportunity to elope), but the illustrations and the narrative are both vibrant with the celebratory energy that carnivals everywhere evoke.

Being just a single spread, it’s a quick visit—but big and busy enough to draw and please several viewers at once. (afterword) (Pop-up picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: April 14, 2015

ISBN: 978-93-83145-11-9

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Tara Publishing

Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
BEASTS OF INDIA
edited by Kanchana Arni & Gita Wolf

- BOOK REVIEW
TWINS
by Gita Wolf ; illustrated by Dhwani Shah with Bhaddu Hamir

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BARBER'S DILEMMA
by Koki Oguma & Gita Wolf ; illustrated by Koki Oguma

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BOOKMARKS ARE PEOPLE TOO!

From the Here's Hank series , Vol. 1

by Henry Winkler ; Lin Oliver ; illustrated by Scott Garrett ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2014

An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.

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Hank Zipzer, poster boy for dyslexic middle graders everywhere, stars in a new prequel series highlighting second-grade trials and triumphs.

Hank’s hopes of playing Aqua Fly, a comic-book character, in the upcoming class play founder when, despite plenty of coaching and preparation, he freezes up during tryouts. He is not particularly comforted when his sympathetic teacher adds a nonspeaking role as a bookmark to the play just for him. Following the pattern laid down in his previous appearances as an older child, he gets plenty of help and support from understanding friends (including Ashley Wong, a new apartment-house neighbor). He even manages to turn lemons into lemonade with a quick bit of improv when Nick “the Tick” McKelty, the sneering classmate who took his preferred role, blanks on his lines during the performance. As the aforementioned bully not only chokes in the clutch and gets a demeaning nickname, but is fat, boastful and eats like a pig, the authors’ sensitivity is rather one-sided. Still, Hank has a winning way of bouncing back from adversity, and like the frequent black-and-white line-and-wash drawings, the typeface is designed with easy legibility in mind.

An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda. (Fiction. 7-9)

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-448-48239-2

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE CASE OF THE STRANGE SPLASH
by Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver ; illustrated by Dan Santat

- BOOK REVIEW
HOLLYWOOD VS. THE GALAXY
by Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver ; illustrated by Ethan Nicolle

- BOOK REVIEW
LIGHTS, CAMERA, DANGER!
by Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver

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THE ULTIMATE BOOK OF CITIES

by Anne-Sophie Baumann ; illustrated by Didier Balicevic ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2017

There’s lots to see and do in this big city.

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A set of panoramic views of the urban environment: inside and out, above and belowground, at street level and high overhead.

Thanks to many flaps, pull tabs, spinners, and sliders, viewers can take peeks into stores and apartments, see foliage change through the seasons in a park, operate elevators, make buildings rise and come down, visit museums and municipal offices, take in a film, join a children’s parade, marvel as Christmas decorations go up—even look in on a wedding and a funeral. Balicevic populates each elevated cartoon view with dozens of tiny but individualized residents diverse in age, skin tone, hair color and style, dress, and occupation. He also adds such contemporary touches as an electrical charging station for cars, surveillance cameras, smartphones, and fiber optic cables. Moreover, many flaps conceal diagrammatic views of infrastructure elements like water treatment facilities and sources of electrical power or how products ranging from plate glass and paper to bread, cheese, and T-shirts are manufactured (realistically, none of the workers in the last are white). Baumann’s commentary is largely dispensable, but she does worthily observe on the big final pop-up spread that cities are always changing—often, nowadays, becoming more environmentally friendly.

There’s lots to see and do in this big city. (Informational novelty. 6-9)