Cheerful, busy illustrations make this gentle fantasy exciting.
A little imagination transforms everyday objects into wonders in this sweet picture book.
Novelline (Piccadilly and the Fairy Polka, 2014) teams with debut illustrator Hwang for this second series adventure, which retains the charm and general look of the first installment while telling a crisper, more focused story. Piccadilly, a pigtailed little girl with big, blue eyes, wishes that soap bubbles lasted longer so that she could “fill the sky with rainbows!” Dad explains that the “breeze might be too strong today,” and Piccadilly notices the blowing leaves, which, to her, look like acorn-capped, male and female ballet dancers with autumn-leaf wings, pants, and skirts. “I want to dance with the wind!” Piccadilly cries, but then she lands in a leaf pile, disappointed. When falling acorns “tippity-tup” on her head, Piccadilly meets a squirrel named Sir Bartleby, and she sadly concludes that “the wind didn’t dance with you either.” But Piccadilly doesn’t give up. The next morning, as multicolored, sparkly swirls of wind blow through her windows, Piccadilly works on a kite. Outside, her finished creation takes on “a fancy of its own,” spiraling into the air until Piccadilly takes flight, still wearing her bunny slippers. She soars joyfully among leaves, sparkles, and fairies until the wind places her back on the ground, where she and Sir Bartleby find that the wind has arranged a perfect pile of acorns. Children will enjoy poring over Hwang’s dense, cartoony illustrations, which are packed with color, patterns, and surprises. Young readers will likely try to spot all the fairies in these images; adults, however, may wish that the book had a bit more visual breathing room. Novelline’s language is just as bright and bouncy as the illustrations, with fun-to-read-aloud sound effects (such as “Whoovity Whee!”) and just the right balance of description and dialogue. The slight story with its low-stakes conflict creates a safe yet engaging adventure for very young children and other sensitive readers.
Cheerful, busy illustrations make this gentle fantasy exciting.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9835311-4-2
Page Count: 44
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
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