by Liniers ; illustrated by Liniers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2015
This effervescent package opens to reveal plenty of wisdom.
Argentine cartoonist Liniers presents a graphic ode to the pleasures and challenges of composition, starring his recurring character Henrietta, a young bibliophile.
The little girl's cat, Fellini, looks on as she writes and illustrates "The Monster with Three Heads and Two Hats." Page by page, she narrates her process, her own story appearing in a childlike, colored-pencil scrawl alongside Liniers' polished panels. "In a good story, there's always something that happens 'suddenly'!" she informs Fellini as a hand emerges from a wardrobe into her protagonist's nighttime bedroom. Henrietta and her creator are kindred spirits, displaying equal knacks for the surreal and the utterly charming. "The wardrobe was made in Narnia," she explains to Fellini as she propels protagonist and monster into it, where they discover an inscrutable mouse, a hat for the monster's bare head, and another monster. Liniers covers the importance of judiciously placed punctuation ("those three little dots really add... / ...SUSPENSE!") and research (a trip to the encyclopedia yields a bonanza of hat styles, all depicted) as well as the excitement of creation: "I'm drawing really fast 'cause I want to see what happens next." If the final joke comes at Henrietta's expense ("let's go look for a publisher," she declares at "THE END"), it does so gently and with collegiality. A Spanish-language edition, Escrito y Dibujado por Enriqueta, publishes simultaneously.
This effervescent package opens to reveal plenty of wisdom. (Graphic early reader. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-935179-90-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: TOON Books & Graphics
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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by Adam Rubin ; illustrated by Daniel Salmieri , Charles Santoso , Liniers , Emily Hughes , Nicole Miles & Seaerra Miller
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by Emmanuel Guibert & illustrated by Joann Sfar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2006
Young space pirate Sardine checks in for a dozen more mini-adventures, in most of which she, her sidekick Little Louie and hulking captain Yellow Shoulder get the better of evil Supermuscleman and his rubbery orange minion Doc Krok. Along with occasional side trips to play soccer with a giant Dunderhead’s detachable navel or to rescue Yellow Shoulder, the heroic pirates sabotage Supermuscleman’s child brainwashing machine, treat him to an explosive set of Christmas presents and engage in a high speed chase along the Milky Way that ends suddenly when the Milk turns. In one episode that edges perilously close to over-the-top, a pair of his stuttering star thieves briefly captures them. All related in cartoon panels, printed on coated paper to brighten the colors and featuring easily legible lettering in big dialogue balloons, these episodes might seem a touch repetitious to adults, especially those familiar with volume one (May 2006), but they will keep the younger audiences to whom they’re actually addressed chortling. (Graphic novel. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59643-127-X
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
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by Emmanuel Guibert ; illustrated by Marc Boutavant
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by Emmanuel Guibert & illustrated by Joann Sfar & translated by Elisabeth Brizzi & Alexis Siegel
by Bob Wilson & illustrated by Bob Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2006
Younger readers who prefer their tales of knightly valor straight up should eschew this droll, double-stranded import. Expressing doubts that King Alfred really burnt those cakes, or that Canute got wet feet, Wilson proceeds in paired cartoon panels to deliver a rhymed official rendition and a slangy factual account of how young Dave the peasant drove a fearsome beast out of Princess Peach’s bedchamber—thus, naturally, earning her hand in marriage. Dave’s quick-thinking mother expedites the process, determining that the “horrid creature” squeaks and is fond of cheese, but persuading the suspicious King Arfwitt and Queen Girdlestein that it’s a dragon nonetheless, then letting nature take its course with the young folk. Wilson outfits every character with eyeglasses, “arms” Dave with a wooden sword and a bucket for a helmet (“you look a right wally,” his mom observes), and encloses verses, dialogue and the frequent asides in balloons. Children trained to expect action on every page may find the episode a bit wordy and slow-going, but there’s certainly food for thought here, as well as an amiable, silly story. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-84507-496-3
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2006
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