Inspiring fare for paper crafters and Lego-manes alike.
A soaring 3-D tribute to “the world’s most beloved toy.”
This rhapsodic tour of the company’s history, minifigures, themes, structures, and martial arts Ninjago barely stops short of including an order form. Reinhart trumps the commercialism, though, with five pop-ups so huge and dazzlingly complicated that their content seems just a pretext for an exhibition of jaw-dropping paper engineering. See the red race car? Lift here, and it suddenly acquires wings and propellers; pull there, and a robot T. Rex snaps into view as if from nowhere. Turn a page for a castle complete with dragon and Fright Knights—transformed, with a yank on a pull-tab, to a Space Cruiser and a friendly demand to surrender our “hunk of dirt” immediately. Smaller side flaps and die-cut windows offer similarly magical transformations, along with portrait galleries and descriptive notes. Opening the final spread releases a densely kaleidoscopic collage of Lego figures and structures that twists up nearly 2 feet to a flying pirate ship beneath a shiny toy sun. “What will you build next?” the hyperbolic commentary concludes. A good question for Reinhart as well as for young makers.
Inspiring fare for paper crafters and Lego-manes alike. (Pop-up informational picture book. 7-10)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-88104-3
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
George deftly describes the satisfying sequence of familiar events in a summer camping experience in this collection of 30 related poems perfectly paired once again with Kiesler's inviting oil paintings (The Great Frog Race and Other Poems, 1998, etc.). The daily rhythms of a camping trip are presented from the “Tent” to exploring an “Abandoned Cabin” to observing “A Doe.” Shared common experiences include “Sleeping Bag”: "It's so cold outside, I'm getting dressed inside / my sleeping bag. I wriggle, scoootch, scrunch, and jiggle. Flop. / Front flips, back flips—I'm a caterpillar / in a cozy cloth cocoon / that zips." Short pieces like “Mosquito Song” demonstrate pointed wordplay with a witty use of alliteration and onomatopoeia: "Its Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! / Mosqueeeeeeeeeeeeeeto! / Is that you, Dinner? / Greeeeeeeeeetings." Kiesler expresses the changing vistas of the countryside from the uneasy, dark palette of the double-page spread for “Storm” to the bright, sunshiny view of a field for “Wild Mustard.” The changing layout of each page gives a sense of surprise to the most ordinary of events, the words of the concrete poem, “Eavesdropping,” "Tipping / a slender / silver ear" placed in the shape of crescent moon, the stanzas of “Flashlight” positioned in the beams of light, to name just a few. Altogether, an engaging trip. (Poetry. 7-10)
Pub Date: March 19, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-04597-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
Two boys imagine an adventure in the kingdoms of Thatchwych and High Dudgeon. Sir Seth and his buddy Sir Ollie go a-questing in their tinfoil armor to find the missing Soothsaying Shoes of Sir Shawn Shrood. They wend their way to the dark, lonely castle of Prince Quincy of Poxley with the help of saber-toothed sloth Edith-Anne and the ghost of Jolly King Wally. Can they brave the weezils and weevils and elephant ants with measles and worse? With the help of new friends, it’s easy-peasy! Published in an avowed attempt to revive the read-aloud for middle graders, Canadian ad-man Thake’s first work of fiction will, more likely, sour their stomachs. The forced rhymes and treacly descriptions would set teeth on edge in a picture book. The bad grammar and cutesy made-up words are anything but instructive, easily addressed “dangers” kill any sense of adventure and the characters never develop beyond caricatures. Serviceable black-and-white, cartoon illustrations can’t save this. Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon books, Kate McMullan’s Dragon Slayers' Academy and the storied Magic Tree House all render this painfully patronizing series unnecessary. (Fantasy. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897349-92-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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