In this rollicking remake of the classic tale, an inventor cobbles together a robot to clean his cluttered workshop, then incautiously leaves the schematics where his new ``apprentice'' can find them. Setting the inventor's lab in a seedy industrial neighborhood, Dewan (Top Secret, p. 140, etc.) festoons it with enticing junk that hovers right on the edge of recognizability, paying tribute to Dukas's century-old scherzo with backgrounds of intertwined electronic diagrams and musical notations. About to be vacuumed into components by a menacing rank of near-clones, the stubby apprentice, resembling nothing so much as an old canister-style Hoover, is rescued by its maker with a mighty blast of electricity, then affectionately led off for a ``nice hot cup of oil.'' It's a memorable take, capped by a rousing robot cheer: ``1, 2, 4, 8, We were made to duplicate.'' (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-385-32537-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1997
A trite, knock-off sequel to Jumanji (1981). The “Jumanji” box distracts Walter Budwing away from beating up on his little brother Danny, but it’s Danny who discovers the Zathura board inside—and in no time, Earth is far behind, a meteor has smashed through the roof, and a reptilian Zyborg pirate is crawling through the hole. Each throw of the dice brings an ominous new development, portrayed in grainy, penciled freeze frames featuring sculptured-looking figures in constricted, almost claustrophobic settings. The angles of view are, as always, wonderfully dramatic, but not only is much of the finer detail that contributed to Jumanji’s astonishing realism missing, the spectacular damage being done to the Budwings’ house as the game progresses is, by and large, only glimpsed around the picture edges. Naturally, having had his bacon repeatedly saved by his younger sibling’s quick thinking, once Walter falls through a black hole to a time preceding the game’s start, his attitude toward Danny undergoes a sudden, radical transformation. Van Allsburg’s imagination usually soars right along with his accomplished art—but here, both are just running in place. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2002
ISBN: 0-618-25396-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A retelling based on three of the ``half a dozen'' Korean Cinderella variants: ``Pear Blossom's'' stepmother calls her ``Little Pig,'' barely feeds her, and assigns her impossible tasks (filling a cracked jug), but the girl is helped by magical animals (a giant ox that weeds a rice paddy for her). A young magistrate, ``struck by her beauty,'' identifies her at a village festival by her lost sandal, and thus she makes an honorable marriage. The simple tale is retold in a vigorous, rather dramatic style. Heller, whose illustrations are based on her research in Korea, offers bold montages of figures and patterns in a striking array of intense colors. Her facial expressions are less expertly crafted than her realistic animals, sculptural draperies, and decorative traditional motifs, while the mix of styles leads to some cluttered effects; still, an attractive setting for a worthy variant. (Folklore/Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-020432-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993
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