by Katja Kamm & illustrated by Katja Kamm ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2006
In this near-wordless exercise in graphic design, cartoon figures sporting grotesquely pink noses seem to gain or lose body parts or various articles of clothing by moving onto identically colored backgrounds between one spread and the next. Sets of disembodied faces, hands and feet turn into nuns in purple habits; an invisible black bicyclist hits an invisible black tree; a girl trips over a mustard-colored dog, revealed (urinating) by a turn of the page. Closing with a grinning lad who sheds all of his clothing and totally disappears into a flesh-toned spread, this may elicit chuckles from young readers, but it comes off as a one-trick pony next to the color effects in the likes of Justine Fontes’s Black Meets White, illus by Geoff Waring (2005). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7358-2052-X
Page Count: 40
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
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by Rob Scotton & illustrated by Rob Scotton ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2005
Scotton makes a stylish debut with this tale of a sleepless sheep—depicted as a blocky, pop-eyed, very soft-looking woolly with a skinny striped nightcap of unusual length—trying everything, from stripping down to his spotted shorts to counting all six hundred million billion and ten stars, twice, in an effort to doze off. Not even counting sheep . . . well, actually, that does work, once he counts himself. Dawn finds him tucked beneath a rather-too-small quilt while the rest of his flock rises to bathe, brush and riffle through the Daily Bleat. Russell doesn’t have quite the big personality of Ian Falconer’s Olivia, but more sophisticated fans of the precocious piglet will find in this art the same sort of daffy urbanity. Quite a contrast to the usual run of ovine-driven snoozers, like Phyllis Root’s Ten Sleepy Sheep, illustrated by Susan Gaber (2004). (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-059848-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2005
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by Robin Pulver & illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2006
The creators of Punctuation Takes a Vacation (2003) sentence readers to a good time with this follow-up. Feeling left out after the children in Mr. Wright’s class thunder outside for a Field Day, the nouns and verbs left in the classroom decide to organize events of their own. But having chosen like parts of speech for partners—“Glue, Markers and Tape stuck together. Shout wanted to be with Cheer. So did Chew and Eat.”—it quickly becomes apparent that as opposing teams they can’t actually do anything. Depicting the Nouns as objects and the Verbs as hyperactive v-shaped figures, Rowe creates a set of high-energy scenes, climaxing in a Tug of Words and other contests once the participants figure out that they’ll work better mixed rather than matched. This playful introduction to words recalls Ruth Heller’s Kites Sail High (1998) and Merry-Go-Round (1990) for liveliness, and closes with several simple exercises and games to get children into the act. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 15, 2006
ISBN: 0-8234-1982-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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