A middling treatment all around.
With the help of a beautiful princess, Theseus solves the mystery of the Labyrinth.
King Minos, ruler of the island of Crete, is “a very powerful man—but he [is] not a very nice one.” In his infamous Labyrinth, he keeps the dreaded monster known as the Minotaur, who is fed 14 young Athenians brought every nine years from across the sea. Athenian prince Theseus wants to end the carnage, so he joins the latest group. Fortunately for him, Minos' daughter Ariadne falls in love with him. She gives him a small sword to hide in his tunic and a ball of golden thread that he clutches to his heart as he sleeps. Next morning, Theseus ties the thread to the Labyrinth door, clutches the sword tightly, slays the Minotaur and makes his way out. Theseus, his friends and Ariadne sail in triumph back to Athens—the book omits his abandonment of Ariadne on the island of Naxos and his carelessness with the sails that results in his father’s suicide. The book’s raison d’être is an Escher-like spread that gives readers a chance to “navigate” the multilevel maze along with Theseus, but it does not live up to the hype on the front cover. The painterly two-page illustrations and blocks of heightened prose reinforce the majesty of the myth, though both components sometimes seem fusty.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84780-431-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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
There’s lots to see and do in this big city.
A set of panoramic views of the urban environment: inside and out, above and belowground, at street level and high overhead.
Thanks to many flaps, pull tabs, spinners, and sliders, viewers can take peeks into stores and apartments, see foliage change through the seasons in a park, operate elevators, make buildings rise and come down, visit museums and municipal offices, take in a film, join a children’s parade, marvel as Christmas decorations go up—even look in on a wedding and a funeral. Balicevic populates each elevated cartoon view with dozens of tiny but individualized residents diverse in age, skin tone, hair color and style, dress, and occupation. He also adds such contemporary touches as an electrical charging station for cars, surveillance cameras, smartphones, and fiber optic cables. Moreover, many flaps conceal diagrammatic views of infrastructure elements like water treatment facilities and sources of electrical power or how products ranging from plate glass and paper to bread, cheese, and T-shirts are manufactured (realistically, none of the workers in the last are white). Baumann’s commentary is largely dispensable, but she does worthily observe on the big final pop-up spread that cities are always changing—often, nowadays, becoming more environmentally friendly.
There’s lots to see and do in this big city. (Informational novelty. 6-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 979-1-02760-079-3
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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