Extraordinary science teacher Ms. Frizzle is back sans school bus in a nine-by-twelve format tackling a whole new subject area: social studies. Ms. Frizzle is vacationing in Egypt and travels back to ancient times. Cole (The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip, 1997, etc.) continues the characteristic mix of fact and fantasy. Pages are packed with images of people, animals, architecture—and facts, facts, facts. Dress, writing, food, housing, social classes are all simply explained. “Ancient Egyptians wrote on paper made from papyrus, a large water plant. The paper was called papyrus, too.” Ms. Frizzle’s linear commentary is boxed on a white background, as rich additional material—comments, jokes, and data—are strewn about in cartoon speech balloons, postcards, diary entries, and sidebars. Ms. Frizzle’s attire continues to surprise and delight, from her airplane dress covered with images of flight to her Ancient Egypt costume crawling with scarabs. Degen presents a bolder palate of deep greens, brick browns, reds, and blues, using pen and ink, watercolor, color pencil, and gouache for the comical detailed paintings. An Egyptologist who lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art vetted Cole’s facts. The last page speaks directly to the fantasy elements of the story explaining what really can’t happen. Quite a trip. (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-590-44680-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Trickling, bubbling, swirling, rushing, a river flows down from its mountain beginnings, past peaceful country and bustling city on its way to the sea. Hooper (The Drop in My Drink, 1998, etc.) artfully evokes the water’s changing character as it transforms from “milky-cold / rattling-bold” to a wide, slow “sliding past mudflats / looping through marshes” to the end of its journey. Willey, best known for illustrating Geraldine McCaughrean’s spectacular folk-tale collections, contributes finely detailed scenes crafted in shimmering, intricate blues and greens, capturing mountain’s chill, the bucolic serenity of passing pastures, and a sense of mystery in the water’s shadowy depths. Though Hooper refers to “the cans and cartons / and bits of old wood” being swept along, there’s no direct conservation agenda here (for that, see Debby Atwell’s River, 1999), just appreciation for the river’s beauty and being. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0792-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
An uncomplicated opener, with some funny bits and a clear but not heavy agenda.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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