An extra helping for those readers who haven’t had their fill of the general premise.
More edible precipitation—falling not on the town of Chewandswallow this time, but Mars, and timed to whet appetites for the second iteration of the film version of the franchise.
Grandpa falls asleep in his chair following news reports of astronauts greeted by a shower of goo on the red planet and dreams of being there himself, helping the green-skinned residents cope with barrages of falling pies. They’re all the fruit-filled sort in Monés’ illustrations, which are closely modeled on Ron Barrett’s work in the previous two Cloudy episodes and sandwich color views of Martian cities and citizens between earthly scenes in crosshatched black and white. The story goes on a little too long and ends in a muddle—the goo turns out to be ordinary Martian rain, but the pie Grandpa serves to his grandchildren in the final scene comes from an interplanetary shipping carton that is somehow translated into reality from his dream solution of exporting fallen pies to Earth. Nevertheless, the showers of crust and fruit filling look delectable, and the illustrator tucks in plenty of amusing side business and sight gags.
An extra helping for those readers who haven’t had their fill of the general premise. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9027-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not awe-ful.
The creator of An Awesome Book! (2012) and its titularly similar companions offers an alphabet of uplift.
In lines of sometimes forcibly compelled rhyme (“Q is for Quiet / To escape from the madness / R is for Reading / But also for radness”), Clayton blends hand-lettered, characteristically inspirational watchwords and exhortations to dream big, aim high and make the most of the day, the world and life. These he surrounds with a smattering of pictures of unlabeled but common items and animals that are drawn in an engagingly simple, artless way and start with the appropriate letter. (Generally anyway: Viewers will likely puzzle over the guitar on the “A” page, and is the inscrutable lumplet in “C” a Cocoon? A sea Cucumber?) Children may enjoy the intellectual exercise of identifying the tiny images more than winkling personal meaning out of “E is for Everything / under the sun” or “V is for Values / and keeping them true,” but the feel-good tone is catching, and the sentiments make fertile discussion fodder.
Not awe-ful. (Inspirational picture book. 6-8, adult)Pub Date: March 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5745-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
In video and on paper, the art casts an evocative glow, but the story is much changed and the transition from one medium to...
In this atmospheric version of the author’s prizewinning short film, a lad woos—and ultimately wins—the Moon.
Strangely, in the film, the story is revealed at the end to be an allegorical take on a more earthly pursuit, but here, Alaimo tells it straight. His heart captured by the Moon, a lonely boy endures “a long and arduous journey upward” (not depicted) to offer her a rose. She rejects that gift, as well as the pearl that he fetches from the sea and the diamond eye he intrepidly cuts from a dragon. Ignoring an old man’s warning that she would transform him forever, he finally ties the Moon in place until she beholds “the beauty of the colors of the day” and so accepts him at last. Except for the climactic daylight spread, the illustrations, drawn from the film, feature a boy, the big crescent Moon, and other shadowy figures lit in pale gold against dark backdrops of equally dim stars. Over and above the bondage bit, not only is the original’s plotline significantly altered and shortened, but two scenes—one showing the lad planning his final ploy and the other of a threatening shadow—are confusingly jammed together.
In video and on paper, the art casts an evocative glow, but the story is much changed and the transition from one medium to the other, awkwardly accomplished. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-939629-76-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Familius
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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