Another adaptation that should have readers reaching for the original.
Just in time for the 2016 theatrical release of Disney’s live-action version of its 1967 adaptation of the Kipling classic comes another opportunistic picture-book version of the same.
Like Laura Driscoll and Migy Blanco’s similarly timed, bland adaptation, Hunter’s picture book combines “Mowgli’s Brothers” and “Kaa’s Hunting,” but it also tosses in a bit of chronologically confused “Tiger! Tiger!” Unexpectedly, perhaps in an attempt to atone for Kipling’s colonialist sins, Hunter locates the action in and just outside a modern Indian city. He also dresses Mowgli in athletic shorts. Both are decidedly unconventional moves that could, in bolder hands, have led to a strikingly revisionist interpretation. Unfortunately, Hunter doesn’t go there. Upon discovering the stolen “man’s cub,” Bagheera takes Mowgli to a pack of feral dogs in the city to be raised, retrieving the boy at 10 to teach him the jungle law in hopes of protecting him from Shere Khan. To the accompaniment of slick, pastel-colored digital illustrations that rely on light outlines as much as dark, Mowgli resists Bagheera and Baloo’s teachings, is captured by “the lawless monkeys,” goes in and out of the city, and eventually triumphs over the tiger. Except in the very broadest of outlines, the story will be unrecognizable to fans of the original stories and the film alike, disappointing purists on both sides. The prose is as undistinguished as the plotting and illustrations.
Another adaptation that should have readers reaching for the original. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84780-797-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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