This is a story that keeps interrupting itself.
A few pages into the comic, the narration is drowned out by sound effects. A flock of chicks keeps squawking for two pages straight. It happens right in the middle of a sentence: “They pecked all day long. EVERY SINGLE DAY. It drove Warren…Peep! Peck! Peck! Peck! / CRAZY.” (Eight nearly identical panels labeled Sunday through Sunday show four chicks peeping and pecking, as Warren looks on with increasing exasperation.) This is, presumably, supposed to be an amusing, postmodern device, but mostly it’s just an annoyance. In fairness, it’s supposed to be annoying. Warren hates the daily routine on the farm. He says, “I’ve had enough pecking and peeping….I am MORE than just an ORDINARY CHICKEN.” Warren becomes a sort of poultry superhero, rescuing the others from Millard the rat, who has invited them all to a barbecue. Large sections of the plot may feel familiar. The book feels much like the film Chicken Run, for example. But the story isn’t the point. The point is the jokes, which are terrible and brilliant in equal measure. When Warren bumps into an egg, he says, “OEUF!” The simple line drawings are charming. The text is a matter of taste. It will be a hit with fans of borscht-belt humor. Everyone else may be driven…CRAZY. (Graphic fiction. 6-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5340-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
This uninspired offering fails to compete well with other fantasies for young readers.
Exploring the wide world, pixies get into a bundle of troubles in this outing for readers already successfully into chapter books.
In this first of a series previously published in the UK, Titch and Mitch are pixie brothers, Titch the eldest by a year and a bit the braver of the pair. They pack up a little food and head off on a series of adventures that take them away from the safe haven of Pixie Valley and out into the human world where they are kidnapped by a schoolboy, then escape on a boat that crashes on an island. There they are befriended by a series of talking animals and rescue a fairy caught in a shrub. She provides them with a magical flying bicycle that they use to visit her, provide some dental services to a mouse-sized dragon and rescue a very smart turkey. Numerous detailed black-and-white sketches accompany these brief episodes and nicely break up text-heavy pages. Character development is nearly nonexistent, and while the brief adventures provide a mild amount of excitement, their superficiality sharply limits the potential impact. Magical elements seem flat and unimaginative. There is no conclusion, merely an abrupt end, where the next tale will presumably begin.
This uninspired offering fails to compete well with other fantasies for young readers. (Fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9567449-5-1
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Inside Pocket
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Duck is going about her daily activities when she notices the presence of Death. Personified as a miniature Grim Reaper,...
Parents who choose to discuss death with their young children may feel this odd import is an excellent discussion starter (if they don't find it peculiar and macabre).
Duck is going about her daily activities when she notices the presence of Death. Personified as a miniature Grim Reaper, complete with long robe and grinning skull, Death initially frightens Duck, who wonders if Death has come to “fetch” her. The (not so) reassuring response? “Oh, I’ve been close by all your life—just in case.” Eventually Death seems so familiar that Duck even reaches out to warm him after a dip in the pond. Touched but undeterred, Death waits patiently until one day Duck succumbs, whereupon he launches her (and the titular tulip) out upon the “great river.” Erlbruch’s text, in Chidgey's translation, offers plenty to talk about, with touches of gentle humor as well as some briskly summarized views of the afterlife. His illustrations likewise repay careful attention despite their apparent simplicity. Created primarily in subdued shades, they appear to incorporate drawing, painting, etching and collage, and they deftly convey both action and personality with a few lines.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-877579-02-8
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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