Swift's account of Gulliver's captivity in Lilliput and Brobdingnag is considerably shortened and rephrased here, but Riordan expertly preserves the flavor of the original: upon reaching the temple where he is to stay, the intrepid traveler shamefacedly relieves himself before the tiny multitudes (though the more famous scene where he similarly puts out a palace fire is absent); later, he survives plenty of harrowing adventures, admiringly describing the societies in which he's stranded while taking subtle pokes (and not-so-subtle—``Englishmen are the nastiest race of odious little vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth,'' says the king of Brobdingnag) at his own, and at fashion and politics in general. Large or small, Gulliver cuts a heroic figure in Ambrus's pervasive, free-wheeling illustrations; other characters have exaggerated features and a comic air that lighten the satire and serves the narrative well. Swift's ax-grinding can be indigestible in large doses; like other abridged classics from this publisher and illustrator, a palatable, well-blended appetizer. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1992
ISBN: 0-19-279897-9
Page Count: 94
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Novak (The Pillow War, 1998, etc.) offers another blunt picture book parable. When a blue-skinned mechanical family moves into the old Wilson place, the neighbors are dismayed. The Robobots get a hostile reception in town, too, finding locked doors and signs such as “Weirdos go home” and “No freaks” posted on stores and the school. Distressed but optimistic, the Robobots invite an angry delegation into their radically altered home; after an exhilarating ride on the motorized furniture, plus a shared meal of cheeseburgers and chocolate-covered propellers, the tension floats away on a cloud of smiles. Children may laugh at the Robobots’ animated, pop-eyed furnishings and daffy ingenuousness, but they’ll laugh harder, and with more understanding, at Sam Swope and illustrator Barry Root’s less labored take on the theme, The Araboolies of Liberty Street (1989). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7894-2566-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
A misfit seventh grader’s half-serious conviction that he’s an alien proves well-founded in this wild, slime-and-monster-filled romp from Mackel (A Season Of Comebacks, 1997). The tales Mike spins to a rapt audience of younger neighbors, about hideous reptilian invaders called Jongs, come home to roost when, after a horribly embarrassing computer prank, he constructs a powerful transmitter out of household electronics and beams a plea for help into the night sky. Suddenly, he’s besieged by nonhuman “rescuers,” from a sluglike Bom, eager to open a raft of personal injury suits on Mike’s behalf, to Barnabus, an entity-rights worker from (where else?) Sirius. Thinking better of his original impulse, Mike fends them off until, to his dismay and elation, an actual Jong swoops down, intending to add him and any other convenient beings to its personal zoo. Mike contrives to defeat the Jong and release its menagerie, setting the stage for an unforgettable Halloween parade through town. In the end, despite proof that his stories are actually suppressed memories, Mike elects to stay on Earth with family and friends. Fans of such escapades as Gene De Weese’s Black Suits from Outer Space (1989), Jonathan Etra and Stephanie Spinner’s Aliens For Breakfast (1988) and Mel Gilden’s Pumpkins of Time (1994) will welcome this with open arms, tentacles, and pseudopods. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-380-97681-1
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
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