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BATMAN FLASHLIGHT PROJECTIONS

Name: BATMAN FLASHLIGHT PROJECTIONS
Author: Jake Black
ISBN: 978-1-68383-444-1

by Jake Black ; illustrated by Jake Black ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 2018

Insubstantial but properly atmospheric.

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Projected images of the Dark Knight, his friends, foes, and gear.

Printed in black on clear acetate sheets, six projections are drawn in a style reminiscent of the original comics but simpler. They include: a group portrait of the costumed hero among such allies as Robin (the current one, identified as his son) and Alfred; a rogues’ gallery of adversaries; and views of the Bat Signal, the Batmobile, and the Caped Crusader leaping solo to the attack. The card stock leaves are spiral bound so that each appropriately gloomy scene can be held open in one hand while the other uses a small light source (a wide-angled one works best) to project the images on a ceiling or, for more sharply focused results, a nearby wall. Black supplies patronizing instructions for use (“If it’s too dark to read, you can alternate between shining the light through the projection window and onto the words”—duh), generalized background on Batman’s work and largely but not entirely white world (Batwing is black in the comics if not obviously so here), and, at the end, an invitation to draw an action scene using a dry-erase marker on a final, blank, plastic sheet. There’s no storyline, but the gimmick makes this a natural accompaniment for the more-coherent likes of Ralph Cosentino’s Batman (2008) or Kelly Puckett and Jon J Muth’s Batman’s Dark Secret (2015).

Insubstantial but properly atmospheric. (Novelty. 6-9)

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-68383-444-1

Page Count: 16

Publisher: Insight Kids

Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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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
DETECTIVE DUCK
by Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver ; illustrated by Dan Santat

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

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

HORTON AND THE KWUGGERBUG AND MORE LOST STORIES

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HORTON AND THE KWUGGERBUG AND MORE LOST STORIES

by Dr. Seuss ; illustrated by Dr. Seuss ; introduction by Charles D. Cohen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2014

Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent.

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Published in magazines, never seen since / Now resurrected for pleasure intense / Versified episodes numbering four / Featuring Marco, and Horton and more!

All of the entries in this follow-up to The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories (2011) involve a certain amount of sharp dealing. Horton carries a Kwuggerbug through crocodile-infested waters and up a steep mountain because “a deal is a deal”—and then is cheated out of his promised share of delicious Beezlenuts. Officer Pat heads off escalating, imagined disasters on Mulberry Street by clubbing a pesky gnat. Marco (originally met on that same Mulberry Street) concocts a baroque excuse for being late to school. In the closer, a smooth-talking Grinch (not the green sort) sells a gullible Hoobub a piece of string. In a lively introduction, uber-fan Charles D. Cohen (The Seuss, The Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss, 2002) provides publishing histories, places characters and settings in Seussian context, and offers insights into, for instance, the origin of “Grinch.” Along with predictably engaging wordplay—“He climbed. He grew dizzy. His ankles grew numb. / But he climbed and he climbed and he clum and he clum”—each tale features bright, crisply reproduced renditions of its original illustrations. Except for “The Hoobub and the Grinch,” which has been jammed into a single spread, the verses and pictures are laid out in spacious, visually appealing ways.

Fans both young and formerly young will be pleased—100 percent. (Picture book. 6-9)