From script to spotlight, a playful glimpse into the world of moviemaking.
Norah Rose is determined to make movie magic from scratch, but where to start?
Norah Rose’s grandfather isn’t feeling well, and she’s disappointed that their beloved movie nights have been put on hold. That’s when she has the brilliant idea to make a film of her own to share with Grandpa. She begins by writing the script, a gripping story about treasure hunters set right in her hometown of Kansas City. Casting her cousins in the lead roles and relying on a $25 costume budget from Mom, Norah Rose steps behind the lens of a smartphone, and then…lights, camera, action! With determination, creativity, and a lot of quick thinking (how can she shoot her final scene amid a surprise rainstorm?!), Norah Rose eventually makes a movie she’s proud of. She invites the whole neighborhood for a special screening, with Grandpa as the guest of honor. Colorful digital illustrations move the story along, showing familiar Kansas City landmarks and featuring an enthusiastic Norah Rose hard at work. Norah Rose and her family and community are Black. Some longer passages of text slow the story, but practical tips and tricks featured in the backmatter will be of interest to aspiring movie makers.
From script to spotlight, a playful glimpse into the world of moviemaking. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593858301
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
An unusual offering for the young geology nerd.
This British import is an imaginatively constructed sequence of images that show a white boy examining a city pavement, clearly in London, and the sights he would see if he were able to travel down to the Earth’s core and then back again to the surface.
The geologic layers are depicted in 10 vertical spreads that require a 90-degree turn to be read and include endpapers, which open out, concertina fashion, to show the interior of the Earth to its core. Beneath the urban setting are drains, pipes, and artifacts of urban infrastructure. Below that, archaeological relics are revealed. An Underground train speeds by, and below it, a stalactite-encrusted cave yawns. Deep below the Earth’s crust, magma, the Earth’s mantle, and the inner core are shown. Turn the page to start going up again, back through the mantle to the crust, where precious minerals are revealed, then fossils, tree roots, and animal burrows, ending with the same boy in the English countryside. The painted, stenciled, and collaged illustrations are full-bleed, and the tones graduate pleasantly from light colors at the surface of the Earth to rich pinks, yellows, and oranges as readers near the Earth’s core. The text is informative, if lacking in poetry, including such nuggets as “earthworms are expert recyclers, eating dead plants in the soil.”
An unusual offering for the young geology nerd. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68297-136-9
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Words & Pictures
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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