The art may draw more attention than the stories, but it’s agreeable fare for sharing on a lap.
Eight familiar tales decked out in sumptuous visual finery.
The contents are a mixed bag of retold Aesop, Andersen, and Anonymous, plus a much-abridged version of “Beauty and the Beast” credited to Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Like Gustafson’s similarly large-format Classic Fairy Tales (2003) and Classic Bedtime Stories (2014), the focus is on elegant styling and luxuriant detail—in the illustrations, at least. Though the typeface is ornate and attractive on the generously margined pages, the stories are recast in unaffected language, sometimes even informally: the Ugly Duckling is “sort of a gray color,” and his hatchling nestmates peep, “Look at the big one. He’s goofy-looking!” Likewise, when the Little Red Hen asks “Now, who will help me eat the bread?” and gets a chorus of “I will!” she responds, “Well, I wouldn’t count on it!” In the paintings, most of the figures go about in European peasant or Renaissance fancy dress, but even unclothed barnyard fowl are splendidly turned out. “Beauty” takes place, mostly, in sumptuous candlelit surroundings as is customary, and aside from being a pug, “The Emperor Who Had No Clothes” resembles Louis XIV. Dogs and other common animals, most but not all anthropomorphically posed, make up most of the cast in five entries; the humans in three others and glimpsed elsewhere all seem to be white.
The art may draw more attention than the stories, but it’s agreeable fare for sharing on a lap. (source note) (Illustrated folk tales. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-57965-704-8
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Artisan
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Staake ventures into “I Spy” territory with a set of big spreads teeming with tiny random objects, beaming children and silly cartoon figures, all rendered in a retro silkscreen style. Previews supplied through small die-cut circles on near-empty preceding pages give way to broad expanses of loud color and busy activity—linked to loose themes identified in suitably loud captions: “Weird and kooky THINGS THAT GO! Some go fast and some go slow! / Can you find the squawking crow?” Exclamation-strewn captions and a foldout list at the end invite viewers to try spotting specific items, but there’s plenty of eye candy here to reward random browsing, too, as the scenes shift from city streets to a haunted house, a robot factory to a tree studded with suburban bungalows and so on. Children overwhelmed by the visual density of Where’s Waldo? or the aforementioned I Spy albums will be drawn to these somewhat more open and visually groovy assemblages of images. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-11862-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.
Hannah Hadley is a young special agent who must thwart a clear and present danger to the United States in Hoover’s “smart is cool” young adult novel.
Hannah Hadley might seem like most 13-year-old girls. She enjoys painting, playing with her MP3 player and spending time with friends. But that’s where the similarities end. Hadley doubles as Agent 10-1, among the youngest spies drafted into the CIA’s Div Y department. She’s joined in her missions by her 10-pound Shih Tzu, Kiwi (with whom she communicates telepathically), and her best friend Tommie Claire, a blind girl with heightened senses. When duty calls, the group sneaks to a hidden command center located under the floor of Hadley’s art studio. Her current mission, aptly named “Operation Farmer Jones,” takes her to a secluded farmhouse in Canada. There, al-Qaida terrorists have gathered the necessary ingredients for a particularly devastating nuclear warhead that they intend to fire into America. The villains are joined by the Mad Madam of Mayhem, a physicist for hire whom the terrorists force to complete the weapon of mass destruction. With Charlie Higson’s Young James Bond series and the ongoing 39 Clues novellas, covert missions and secret plans are the plots of choice in much of today’s fiction for young readers, and references to the famed 007 stories abound in Hoover’s tale. But while the plot feels familiar, Hoover’s use of modern slang—albeit strained at times—and gadgets such as the iTouch appeal to today’s youth. Placing girls in adult situations has been a mainstay since Mildred Wirt Benson first introduced readers to Nancy Drew in The Secret of the Old Clock, but Hannah Hadley is like Nancy Drew on steroids. Both are athletic, score well in their studies and have a measure of popularity. Hadley, however, displays a genius-level intellect and near superhuman abilities in her efforts to roust the terrorists—handy skills for a young teen spy who just so happens to get the best grades in school.
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0615419688
Page Count: 239
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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