This marvelous addition to the series celebrates the highlights of Boston landmarks and art, all with the irrepressible humor of this sister team. Our young adventurer has visited the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Now, she and her brother are exploring a new museum, just as unwelcome to balloon visitors as the others. Leaving her balloon with her grandmother, the girl and her brother explore the museum’s works with their grandfather, while outside, chaos ensues as the balloon gets loose and floats about the city, passing Boston’s most famous landmarks along the way. Life parallels art through Glasser’s clever drawings. As the children view Rembrandt’s Artist in His Studio, Grandma passes by a painter in the Public Gardens. And Dubuffet’s modernist sculpture L’Enqueteur bears a remarkable resemblance to the baseball catcher at the ballpark. The chase culminates in an uproarious scene at Fenway Park involving the entire cast of characters Grandma has met—and all in the middle of a Red Sox vs. Yankees game, of course. The beauty of this wordless escapade is that the story will be new with each person’s reading. Added to that are wonderful details, like the hidden drawings of 33 famous men and women who played a part in Boston’s history and development. The faithful reproductions found in the text introduce young readers to some of the works of art that can be found at the MFA, while the lively illustrations give an impromptu tour of Boston’s sites. Glasser’s mixture of color, and pen-and-ink drawings make details pop off the pages and the characters come alive. The text includes a list of the reproduced artwork, a map of Boston tracing the journey of the balloon, and brief biographical sketches of the famous people hidden in its pages. Great fun. (Picture book. 5-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-8037-2570-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Warp back in time for a prehistoric spinoff adventure with Geronimo Stilton’s ancestor, Geronimo Stiltonoot, in Old Mouse City.
Readers will find Geronimo Stiltonoot a familiar character, outfitted differently from descendant Stilton yet still running a newspaper and having wild adventures. In this introduction to prehistoric mouse life, someone has stolen the most powerful and important artifact housed by the Old Mouse City Mouseum: the Stone of Fire. It’s up to Stiltonoot and his fellow sleuth and friend, Hercule Poirat, to uncover not only the theft, but a dangerous plot that jeopardizes all of Old Mouse City. As stand-ins for the rest of the Stilton cast, Stiltonoot has in common with Stilton a cousin named Trap, a sister named Thea and a nephew named Benjamin. The slapstick comedy and design, busy with type changes and color, will be familiar for Stilton readers. The world is fictionalized for comedic effect, featuring funny uses for dinosaurs and cheeky references to how far back in time they are, with only the occasional sidebar that presents facts. The story takes a bit long to get started, spending a lot of time reiterating the worldbuilding information laid out before the first chapter. But once it does start, it is an adventure Stilton readers will enjoy. Geronimo Stiltonoot has the right combination of familiarity and newness to satisfy Stilton fans. (Fiction. 6-10)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-44774-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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