Burnie taps the elegance of architectural cutaways and the stunning nature of enduring monuments to create 11 maze challenges. The pathway through a Manhattan skyscraper is a combination of girders and guard dogs; a warren of garden plots and rude gardeners try to thwart a traveler on China’s Great Wall; and construction scaffolding around the Sphinx provides an escape route for a slave. Among the other venues are the Eiffel Tower, a Roman arena, a Moghul temple, Florence Nightingale’s hospital, a flooded Venetian piazza, Christopher Columbus’s Spanish port, and an icy river blocking Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. The handsome and arresting line drawings are delicately tinted and richly atmospheric, filling each two-page spread completely. One problem is the pinch of the book’s binding interfering with the formal maze found in the Loire chateau; another is the difficulty in keeping track of the paths—while some onlookers wouldn’t dream of marking up so lovely a book, others will be tempted to make their journeys through the mazes permanent. Solutions are provided, as are brief descriptive passages of the locales. (Picture book. 7-11)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-375-80155-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
Florian’s seventh collection of verse is also his most uneven; though the flair for clever rhyme that consistently lights up his other books, beginning with Monster Motel (1993), occasionally shows itself—“Hello, my name is Dracula/My clothing is all blackula./I drive a Cadillacula./I am a maniacula”—too many of the entries are routine limericks, putdowns, character portraits, rhymed lists that fall flat on the ear, or quick quips: “It’s hard to be anonymous/When you’re a hippopotamus.” Florian’s language and simple, thick-lined cartoons illustrations are equally ingenuous, and he sticks to tried-and-true subjects, from dinosaurs to school lunch, but the well of inspiration seems dry; revisit his hilarious Bing Bang Boing (1994) instead. (index) (Poetry. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-202084-5
Page Count: 158
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
The way-off-road vehicle (The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field, 1997, etc.) tours the ears, eyes, nose, and skin when the assistant principal, Mr. Wilde, accidentally shrinks the school bus and the children on board, commandeering it to deliver a message to Ms. Frizzle. The vehicle plunges into the eye of a police officer, where the students explore the pupil, the cornea, the retina, and the optic nerve leading to the brain. Then it’s on to other senses, via the ear of a small child, the nose of a dog, and the tongue of the Friz herself. Sidebars and captions add to the blizzard of information here; with a combination of plot, details, and jokes, the trip is anything but dull. The facts will certainly entice readers to learn more about the ways living creatures perceive the world. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-44697-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999
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