Who’s going to love it? Anyone with a keen eye and love of words.
The masters of picture-book wordplay have spawned a new challenge.
On the cover is a little brown-skinned child in a red-and-white–striped bathing suit, standing on the shore and evidently searching for something. Within, the child’s questions are parsed one by one to make visual puns connected by various animals and sea creatures. The picture that accompanies “Who is being selfish?” shows a crab in a tug of war over a bucket with a large fish wearing a T-shirt emblazoned “I [heart] ME.” “Who thinks it’s too crowded?” depicts a boat overflowing with many creatures, including a crow. In the spread asking “Who is at the wheel?” an eel is steering a boat flying a modified Jolly Roger (it has a fish skeleton on it). But what do these seaside scenes have to do with finding a trumpet? The child’s search is not for a musical instrument after all, despite the title, but a pet elephant! The animal names within each keyword are highlighted in red, and the clever illustrations play up the whimsy with details that embellish the fun. The third in this team’s trilogy of wordplay, this book joins Where’s the Baboon (2015) and Take Away the A (2014) to make a delightful, entertaining trilogy that is a salute to language creativity.
Who’s going to love it? Anyone with a keen eye and love of words. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59270-201-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Decidedly one-trick yet inspired and prettily designed.
Coppo adapts a 17th-century Italian magic trick for her latest meta excursion.
Tuxedoed Lady Rabbit welcomes her audience, acknowledging that wow-level magic is difficult to pull off in a book. Making something appear as if out of nowhere…well, “any book can do that!” But the titular claim bears out in cleverly designed pages. First, readers are told to scan a page of audience members (36 charmingly unique denizens arrayed in six rows) and to choose one member. Lady Rabbit then asks kids to identify the row of their seated pick by turning to a specific page. Uh-oh! Every audience member has changed seats! Again directed to a particular page based on their choice’s new row, readers will discover that Lady Rabbit has guessed their pick. All nine answer pages include the characters and the instruction: “I guessed it, didn’t I? Now go to page 39.” There, with a “TA-DA!” and a bow, the white rabbit invites kids to turn back to pages 12-13 to try again. Coppa’s finely inked floral borders and decorated proscenium arch, colored in black and white and muted greens and salmon, emanate a vintage feel. Kids will warm to amusing audience members such as Shroom, Yeti, and Unknown (a smiling question mark) and will delight in the various mini-creatures adorning each page. One downside of the trick’s interactivity: The six pages that redirect readers to the solution pages are visually identical.
Decidedly one-trick yet inspired and prettily designed. (historical note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781797229010
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
