A selective but resplendent tour.
White House high spots, presented with 3-D flair by the archon of paper architects.
The opening multileveled scene of the building under construction—with working hoists, workers properly both dark and light of skin, and the real story about Dolley Madison’s rescue of the Washington portrait hidden beneath a side flap—sets high expectations that are more than met on subsequent spreads. The East Room sports a huge, bewilderingly complicated chandelier; the austerely furnished Lincoln Study is transformed to a bedroom with a flip; the Rose Garden and, at the end, the South Lawn offer broad expanses of green to set off the elegant white gallery and South Portico that rise up. Thanks to some masterly slides and interlocking folds, the climactic Oval Office actually is an uncreased half oval, with the flag-flanked presidential desk and (unoccupied) chair filling the center space. Along with brief captions and historical notes, Sabuda includes a public domain inaugural poem that he’s foresightedly tweaked by changing “man” to “person,” “his” to “our president,” and like alterations. As usual, the pop-ups are so complex and fragile that careful handling is a must. But for young readers on their way as tourists or otherwise to the nation’s capital, here’s a grand first glimpse.
A selective but resplendent tour. (Informational pop-up. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-54089-6
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could.
A lonely zombie makes new friends just by being herself—on Halloween.
Quelled by Auntie Departed’s warnings, young Ghoulia has always confined her outdoor play to the walled grounds of Crumbling Manor…until she eavesdrops on some living children and learns about Halloween. Taking advantage of this perfect opportunity to fit in, she sneaks out with her albino greyhound (and gifted hairdresser), Tragedy, for some trick-or-treating. Hearing her name as “Julia,” the costumed children welcome her. But when they compete to see who’s the scariest, Ghoulia forgets herself and does her “special scary move,” tossing her head in the air and catching it in one hand. The children stand wide-eyed through no fewer than three illustrations on three successive pages—and then welcome her with wild delight and agree to keep her secret from the grown-ups. From then on they become regular visitors to Crumbling Manor. In full-color pictures that take up all or most of every page, Cantini depicts her undead urchin Tim Burton–style, with stitched lips, gray skin, and purple shadows beneath huge eyeballs (everyone else appears white—or sheet white). Assisted by suggestive labels (“Creaky steps”; “A spider visiting from the attic”; “Painting of Grandad Coffin”), the manorial setting has an Addams Family vibe and provides just the right spooky setting for this series opener. Halloween-themed activities are included in the backmatter.
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3293-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Disgusting and futile medical practices are always a pleasure to contemplate. Beccia, following closely in the spirit of The Raucous Royals (2008)—dry-witted artwork, conversational text, engaging historical detective work—asks readers to guess which “cures” may actually have helped a handful of ailments. Take a nasty cough, for example: Should you take a heaping helping of caterpillar fungus, frog soup or cherry bark? Common good sense will lead readers to wag their heads no when it comes to sprinkling mummy powder on a wound or drilling a hole in your head to relieve a headache, though some counterintuitive measures will come as a surprise success: spider web for an open wound, frog slime for a sore throat, moldy bread to treat a cut. The author provides intriguing background information on the cures—where they arose, why they were thought to be efficacious—and pulls more than one gem out of the nastiness, such as the property of silver to kill bacteria, giving birth to a familiar expression: “In the Middle Ages, wealthy-born babies sucked on silver spoons to protect against plague....” (note, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-547-22570-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2010
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