A rare display of artistic invention, with rewards aplenty for close viewing.
A child’s world is brimming with choices—until it comes to bedtime.
The title seems hardly an exaggeration, as all but a small corner of each spread is jam-crammed full of tiny, nonrepeating images of foodstuffs and other (to use the French original’s term) “trucs” that a young, white narrator encounters while going from breakfast to dinner. Viewers willing to follow along will be confronted with challenges to pick out from the teeming pages six rubber ducks, a nibbled carrot, a frog mask, and like items. Perhaps even more compelling is the temptation to linger over each extravagant outpouring of tiny but finely drawn, individually distinct flora, fauna (the day’s round includes a visit to an aquarium), enticing toys, mouthwatering pastries, items of clothing, and more. Then, instead of options, bedtime brings only a gazillion all-too-similar sheep to count: “WHERE’S THE FUN IN THAT?” the narrator grumpily concludes. Many will agree, though an earlier “I wonder if all this choice is an eternal delight or an infernal torment” may prompt more-reflective sorts to wonder the same. Happily, to ease any incipient frustration, there is a visual key (sans a total for those sheep, though) at the end.
A rare display of artistic invention, with rewards aplenty for close viewing. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-910277-42-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: words & pictures
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
Cramped page design aside, an appealing first exposure for younger readers that highlights the story’s comedy over its...
An abbreviated version of the best-ever cautionary tale about the hazards of reading too much (among other things), played for laughs and matched to comical caricatures for illustrations.
Lathrop covers a select few of the original’s high spots in his plainly told paraphrase. Looking hilariously lanky and cross-eyed in Davis’ loosely drawn and colored cartoons, the bookish Don sets out in too-small armor to seek knightly glory. He chooses an oblivious peasant girl as his Dulcinea (“because dulce means ‘sweet’ in Spanish,” the reteller helpfully notes) and mounts Rocinante (“rocín means ‘old nag,’ and ante means ‘before,’ signifying that his horse used to be an old nag but wasn’t one anymore”). With his wise fool neighbor, Sancho Panza, as witness, he charges off to battle a windmill, a herd of sheep, a hapless wineskin and a cage of sleepy lions. Though buck-toothed and dopey of aspect, Sancho Panza gets his own chance to shine as he earns a bag of gold escudos judging several legal cases before Quixote is at last unhorsed by a concerned friend and agrees to take a year off from questing.
Cramped page design aside, an appealing first exposure for younger readers that highlights the story’s comedy over its satire and sentiment. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-94256658-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: LinguaText
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
Handsomely designed, more silly than existentially “absurd” and just the ticket for sharing on a parental lap.
Four affectionately playful father-daughter exchanges written by a mainstay of the Theatre of the Absurd, back in print (in a single volume, to boot) after decades as collectors’ items.
Newly translated by Delessert from the 2009 French edition, this gathering also features the first appearance of his illustrations paired to any English version of Story 3 and Story 4. Each tale starts in the same way—little Josette coaxes an early morning flight of fancy from her father, who in three of the four is bleary from a long night on the town—but then veers off in increasingly elaborate directions. By the final one, he is repeatedly sending her to “look” for him in various rooms of the apartment while he shaves and dresses in the bathroom. Delessert’s crowded, detail-rich pictures add period elements (a dial telephone, a yellow submarine with visible Beatle) to surreal assemblages of toys, plush and fantasy animals, red-capped mushrooms, psychedelic flowers and cozy close-up scenes of Josette with Papa and (more occasionally, as she is generally elsewhere until the very end) Mama.
Handsomely designed, more silly than existentially “absurd” and just the ticket for sharing on a parental lap. (jacketed in a fold-out poster) (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-936365-51-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: McSweeney's McMullens
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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