In the hottest and most cosmic hoops contest since Kevin O’Malley’s Mount Olympus Basketball (2003), Coy shifts the court between shots from New York to Perth, to Shanghai, then Istanbul and on around the world. The players may change with each turn of the page, but the game stays the same, and so does the fast-break pace: In Lagos, just as “Obinna muscles for position and jumps for the rebound,” [turn] “On a court in Paris, France, Jèrôme slaps the rebound—FWAPP! He tosses to Antoine, who jets up the floor.” The art is all energy, with thickly drawn figures flying across panels and spreads past comic-book style dialogue balloons and text boxes. Opening and closing with Tanika and Jamal shooting “Around the World” on a playground in New York (instructions for play appended), Coy and the illustrators give the speed, the physicality and especially the international scope of the game a real slam dunk. (endpaper map) (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-58430-244-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2005
Young readers with a fondness for amphibians will jump all over this one. (Fiction. 6-8)
Stink Moody, younger brother of Judy, hops into the spotlight with a common problem—and one that’s a bit more unusual.
Stink would like to advance in his swimming lessons, but he’s afraid to put his face underwater and seems doomed to remain a Polliwog forever. Fortunately, he’s distracted from that issue by the sudden appearance around town—in some surprising places—of a whole lot of real frogs, a few of which are deformed. These frogs give McDonald the opportunity to offer a little information, through the voice of a nature-center guide, on how adverse environmental conditions can influence frog development. Stink memorizes a variety of frog sounds, enabling him to participate in a frog count at a local pond. Somehow, he becomes convinced that he’s turning into a frog himself, but that might just make it possible for him to swim underwater. Brief, cheery, oversized text and lot of cartoonish black-and-white illustrations (only some of which were available for review) make this a good choice for newly independent readers. A minor issue is that the text informs readers that it is early spring; even in Virginia, that’s a little early for Stink to be taking swimming lessons in an outdoor pool, as indicated in the illustrations.
Young readers with a fondness for amphibians will jump all over this one. (Fiction. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6140-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sweet art, cloying storyline.
Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton pay tribute to the power of music.
The inhabitants of a small village are happy with “simple pleasures” until they commercialize to attract tourists…whereupon a dismal purple mist creeps in and thickens to the point that people stop visiting or even going outside. Then one day little Piccolino, who is helping his father dust the deserted opera house, plinks out a tune on the piano…and notices that the palms in the lobby look fresher. The brown-skinned pair proceed to gather wilting houseplants from all over town, park them in the auditorium seats, and call the orchestra members in for a concert. The plants flourish, the fog lifts, and throngs of villagers are drawn out into the streets by the music to dance and sing. Everyone realizes that “if they remained faithful to all that matters most, nothing could darken their days again.” In a closing note the authors state that they were inspired by an actual concert played in Barcelona in 2020 to an “audience” of plants—a piece of performance art more likely to stimulate discussion than this trite, sugary mess. The illustrations are one bright spot: MacKay places her gracefully posed, diverse figures in luminously hued scenes of narrow streets and neatly kept buildings perched on a steep hill and threaded with musical staves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sweet art, cloying storyline. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781419763199
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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