Encore, Madeline! (Picture book. 4-8)
Much-beloved and as spirited as ever, Madeline is back in Paris to help out a miserable ghost and create a scare of her own intended for the school’s headmaster.
Marciano (Madeline at the White House, 2011) continues his series of sequels to his grandfather’s original works. With gouache, pen and ink, he closely duplicates the style of the classic titles and even includes a number of pages executed in black on yellow. The rhythm of the rhyming text is also reminiscent, as when the action begins with an unexpected visitor: “One afternoon at a quarter past five, / a long black car pulled into the drive.” It’s Lord Cucuface, who conducts an inspection of the premises and discovers a “most / splendid telescope,” which he promptly takes with him. But in the middle of that night, Madeline hears moaning and groaning. It’s the ghost of an astronomer, who needs the telescope back in time to observe a comet he’s been waiting 221 years to see so that he can rest in peace. The kids help Madeline and Pepito pull off a clever trick that involves a convincing costume and a bit of dramatic theater. Of course Lord Cucuface is scared silly, so that by the final page, “a girl and a boy and a ghost were peeping / at a rare and brilliant sight, / a comet streaking through the night.”
Encore, Madeline! (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-670-78485-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
A solid, small step for diversifying STEM stories.
What does Annie want to be?
As career day approaches, Annie wants to keep her job choice secret until her family sees her presentation at school. Readers will figure it out, however, through the title and clues Tadgell incorporates into the illustrations. Family members make guesses about her ambitions that are tied to their own passions, although her brother watches as she completes her costume in a bedroom with a Mae Jemison poster, starry décor, and a telescope. There’s a celebratory mood at the culminating presentation, where Annie says she wants to “soar high through the air” like her basketball-playing mother, “explore faraway places” like her hiker dad, and “be brave and bold” like her baker grandmother (this feels forced, but oven mitts are part of her astronaut costume) so “the whole world will hear my exciting stories” like her reporter grandfather. Annie jumps off a chair to “BLAST OFF” in a small illustration superimposed on a larger picture depicting her floating in space with a reddish ground below. It’s unclear if Annie imagines this scene or if it’s her future-self exploring Mars, but either scenario fits the aspirational story. Backmatter provides further reading suggestions and information about the moon and four women astronauts, one of whom is Jemison. Annie and her family are all black.
A solid, small step for diversifying STEM stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-88448-523-0
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Tilbury House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
An invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way.
A young boy sees things a little differently than others.
Noah can see patterns in the dust when it sparkles in the sunlight. And if he puts his nose to the ground, he can smell the “green tang of the ants in the grass.” His most favorite thing of all, however, is to read. Noah has endless curiosity about how and why things work. Books open the door to those answers. But there is one question the books do not explain. When the wind comes whistling by, where does it go? Noah decides to find out. In a chase that has a slight element of danger—wind, after all, is unpredictable—Noah runs down streets, across bridges, near a highway, until the wind lifts him off his feet. Cowman’s gusty wisps show each stream of air turning a different jewel tone, swirling all around. The ribbons gently bring Noah home, setting him down under the same thinking tree where he began. Did it really happen? Worthington’s sensitive exploration leaves readers with their own set of questions and perhaps gratitude for all types of perspective. An author’s note mentions children on the autism spectrum but widens to include all who feel a little different.
An invitation to wonder, imagine and look at everything (humans included) in a new way. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60554-356-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Redleaf Lane
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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