Eurocentric despite stops on each (permanently inhabited) continent, but a bright debut for the Finnish artist.
A one-day world tour strolls through 11 bustling cityscapes—highly stylized but with identifying clues and recognizable landmarks tucked within stacked rows of streets and clusters of buildings.
References in the rhymed commentary to “[t]eeming streets and bhangra beats” or “[c]apoeira dancers whirling” provide location clues, but aside from London, New York, Rio and Paris, most scenes are crowded composites. In one, a gondolier glides between a leaning tower and an erupting volcano; another offers a view of Uluru across a stretch of water near the Sydney Opera House. On each page, three to five small square or rectangular flaps—artfully concealed by landscape or architectural lines—hide glimpses of underground activity, people within structures or other visual surprises. Nieminen’s tiny human figures, all of which are faceless or have black dots for heads, convey a message contrary to Broom’s conclusion “that though we might look different, / underneath we’re just the same.” Still, everyone here from the walking narrator to shopkeepers, sunbathers, ice skaters and window washers (there are a lot of windows) is doing something, and the flat, graphic art’s vibrant colors kick up the collective energy of all that activity.
Eurocentric despite stops on each (permanently inhabited) continent, but a bright debut for the Finnish artist. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6895-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Big Picture/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names...
A lad finds a big red dragon in his basement and wisely seeks expert advice about its care and feeding in this epistolary episode.
Young Alexander’s missives (there are no cellphones, nor parents, in sight) are mostly paraphrased rather than shown, but each response comes as a small note folded into a pocket that’s been printed and shaped like an envelope: “Douse it in water right away!” writes panic-stricken fire chief H.Y. Drant; find it a large house or castle, advises B. East of World Animal Welfare; “fatten it up,” suggests Angus Teak the butcher (“Look forward to [eating, scratched out] meeting your dragon”) with sinister relish. Boy and dragon have wonderful times together, but the ultimate realization that dragons really don’t make good pets leads the narrator to follow the written advice of best friend Hillary (“the wisest person I knew”) and set it free. The later arrival of a slightly burned picture postcard in the “post” reassures him that the dragon won’t be forgetting to keep in touch. The human figures in Yarlett’s cartoon illustrations are either white or have their heads cut off at the page top. With the exception of the pasted-on postcard from the dragon at the end, all of the correspondence is removable and thereby losable.
Yarlett takes poor advantage of the format, as readers see only half of the correspondence, but the premise and punny names add some appeal. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61067-818-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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