Slick production, heavy paper, an oversized (9 ¾ x 12 ¾ inches) format, and a handsome, stylized, 1950s sci-fi film look combine for a simple yet clever celebration of America’s favorite autumn holiday. “October 31 / It’s Halloween.” In a small New England–esque village-cum-subdivision, children prepare for Halloween. Inside golden and pumpkin-orange–toned rooms, a tableau reveals a clutch of retro-looking children carving jack-’o-lanterns and designing costumes. At midnight, with the trick-or-treating over and the children asleep, a mysterious enchantment causes hundreds of jack-’o-lanterns to rise and converge (along with a few broomsticks, some witches, ghosts, and quite a few ghouls), swooping through the night. A truck driver is amazed and startled, a convenience store is terrorized, and the sky is filled with grinning pumpkins that glow eerily and dance under a not-so-benign orange “pumpkin moon.” The next morning, the landscape is littered with pumpkin detritus while a newspaper headline asks and village kids wonder: “Halloween Hoax or Alien Invasion?” It’s impossible to approach this clever, handsome, British import without seeing it as a rather obvious homage to David Weisner’s Caldecott-winning Tuesday (1991). Spare, headline-like text combines effectively with Bartram’s bright autumnal palette. The interplay of spooky light and shadows, heightened by changing cinematic points of view, delivers a crowd-pleasing—if derivative—Halloween entry. A standout in a crowded pumpkin field. (Picture book. 6-10)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46713-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
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
Good, solid fantasy fun.
Nine-year-old Brooklynite Jaxon meets a witch, becomes her apprentice, and protects baby dragons all in one eventful day.
As the story opens, Jaxon and his mom are being evicted. While Mama tries to secure a place to stay, she leaves him with Ma, the woman who raised her. Ma clearly doesn’t want Jaxon around, but it becomes apparent that’s at least partially due to a mysterious package she’s received. Jax soon discovers that Ma’s a witch, his mom used to be Ma’s apprentice (a mantle he takes up), and that Ma’s package contains…baby dragons! The dragons need to be taken to the magical realm, but a transport malfunction strands Ma while Jax is sent back to Brooklyn. Desperate to save Ma, Jax enlists the help of his friend Vikram, whose little sister, Kavita, tags along. Curious—or is it nosy?—Kavita discovers the dragons and does the worst: feeds them. This not only increases their size, but bonds them to her. Thankfully, Trub, Jax’s maternal grandfather, is a magic user and helps Jax find Ma and get the dragons to the magical realm, where (discerning readers won’t be surprised) they discover one dragon is missing….What a breath of fresh air: a chapter-book fantasy with an urban setting, an array of brown-skinned magic wielders, and a lovable black protagonist readers will root for and sympathize with. Geneva B’s black-and-white illustrations depict a cast of color and appear every few pages.
Good, solid fantasy fun. (Fantasy. 6-10)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7045-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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