Simple, affecting prose and intricate, inspired paintings make this one worth sharing for sure.
A heartrending story of a New Orleans family’s experience through Hurricane Katrina.
Ten-year-old Louis Daniel goes to sleep hugging his brass cornet close as the winds of Hurricane Katrina begin to howl and rattle the house. In the morning, the family realizes that the levee has broken, and the water is quickly rising. They begin to make their way through the wreckage to the promised safety of the Superdome, with Louis Daniel and his mother riding on a piece of someone’s porch as his father pulls them along past a plastic Christmas tree, an eager puppy that they cannot rescue and something that is probably a body in the water. The family makes it to the Superdome, but they eventually find themselves separated. Louis Daniel is sure he has to do something to find his father, but what? And what will happen to the family after they leave the Superdome? And to the friendly dog Louis had to leave behind in the rushing waters? Bootman’s gorgeous paintings bring out the resilient character of the city even as he depicts the devastation it suffered. However, it is through the body language and the emotion in the faces of the mostly African-American cast of characters he creates that Bootman most precisely articulates what it was like to live through such a harrowing experience.
Simple, affecting prose and intricate, inspired paintings make this one worth sharing for sure. (author’s note) . (Picture book. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-56145-591-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
There’s plenty of set-up for future volumes; fans will hope they won’t have to wait long.
Bransford’s debut and the first of a series is an outer-space comedy of errors.
Sixth-grader Jacob Wonderbar is the bane of substitute teachers everywhere. When witchy Mrs. Pinkerton tries to get the class under control and somehow her precious mug is shattered, a sprinkler is triggered and the whole class erupts in screams…Jacob gets the blame and his mother has to pick him up. That night, commiserating with his best friends, Sarah and Dexter, they investigate a strange noise in the forest—and a man in silver offers them a spaceship in exchange for a corndog. Next thing the trio knows, they are taking a tour of the solar system aboard Lucy, an opinionated if slightly bored spaceship. Then there’s a little accident that may involve the breaking of the universe. A space pirate, the eating of dirt, the universe’s largest carbon allotrope and a snooty space princess all complicate the trip home…which Jacob isn’t sure he wants to make. It’s the Saturday-morning-cartoon version of Hitchhiker’s Guide even if the laughs aren’t quite so fast and furious (and some of them are a bit of a stretch).
There’s plenty of set-up for future volumes; fans will hope they won’t have to wait long. (Science fiction/humor. 9-12)Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3537-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This lighthearted charmer will leave readers enchantées.
A beguiling import introduces the irresistibly plucky 12-year-old Lou, a French cousin to Jimmy Gownley’s Amelia McBride.
Lou lives in urban France with her mother, a bespectacled writer who spends her time procrastinating and obsessively playing video games rather than working on her science-fiction space epic. Like many preteens, Lou spends much of her time thinking about clothes, boys and friends and whether she may be too old to play with dolls. Lou utterly adores her neighbor Tristan, and her mother nurtures a similar crush of her own on another neighbor, Richard. What saves Lou from complete tweenage vapidity is a well-timed sense of dry humor with a dash of non-irritating precociousness. Lou’s mother can be tempestuous as an adolescent herself, leaving Lou to act as her anchor, tempering her whims and acting as a voice of reason. This humor is heightened by visits with Memaw, Lou's maternal grandmother, who harbors penchants for both brussels sprouts and conflict. A pleasing palette ranging from vibrant brights to muted earth tones fills neat, orderly panels, creating a cohesive and tidy layout; only at the beginning and end of the volume do readers actually see Lou’s diary, a collage of her thoughts and information about other characters. This publishes simultaneously with volume two, Summertime Blues.
This lighthearted charmer will leave readers enchantées. (Graphic fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7613-8868-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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