This extended exercise in often overflowing imagination needs more authenticity, grounding, and restraint to allow its tale...
After suffering disappointment, an ingenious boy from Manhattan takes a train to a wondrous world and embarks on a quest in this debut middle-grade fantasy novel.
Hugo Doppel looks forward to the annual Mad Science Day at his elementary school, Great Beacon Academy, because he plans to present his latest invention: a machine with the ability not only to create any weather he desires, but also to stop current conditions. Unfortunately, when his machine fails to prevent the snow coming down during his demonstration, he becomes the school’s laughingstock. Dejected, he starts to walk home, coming across an old subway token for something called the “Menlo Express.” He wishes he could be whisked away from Manhattan to a place of adventure, and soon, in a burst of snowflakes, he is, finding himself in a train station he’s never heard of before that is curiously named after him. Boarding the train, he winds up at the Junkyard of Goofy Inventions, guarded by Inventaur the Centaur, whose boss, Henry Pendleton, presents him with a letter from Magnus Winterbach the Wizard. The missive states that Hugo’s discovery of the mysterious token signifies that he is meant to free Magnus and many others from the tyrannical rule of the Skull Face Witch, who has wreaked havoc on the Kingdom of Menlo for many years. Weger stuffs his ambitious novel with fanciful scenes and whimsical characters, arguably to a fault. Although Hugo proves to be a resourceful and likable hero, the book relies less on plot and character development to propel the narrative, focusing instead on increasingly silly worldbuilding—including a desert of wet sand, an anthropomorphic bus, enormous cockroaches, and more. These facets, which are often entertaining, ultimately become exhausting, rarely providing true storytelling substance. While the novel often hearkens back to other classic examples of children’s literature, in which young, ordinary protagonists travel to magical lands, it rarely displays the finesse and heart of such genre titans as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and the Narnia series.
This extended exercise in often overflowing imagination needs more authenticity, grounding, and restraint to allow its tale about a young inventor to truly soar.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63413-682-2
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Mill City Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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