Engineering becomes art in this sprightly tale of a huge but useless machine saved from the wrecking ball. Written in rhymed free verse, the tale opens with Professor Ludwig von Glink waking one morning with an idea for a perpetual-motion device. He’s wrong—but so entrancing is his mechanical gizmo that he decides “to work up some specs / and see if I can make this / mingle-mangle of intricate / jury-rigged gimcrackery / yet more complex.” Cheered on by his wife (dressed, as he is, in a lab coat) and five children, the Professor proceeds to wreath the entire house in gears and rods, pulleys, slides and pinwheels. Then a hard-nosed Building Inspector shows up. Using quick strokes of pen and brush, Briant creates buoyant, increasingly crowded cartoon scenes featuring a magnificent construct that almost conceals the house around and through which it snakes—and which is saved by the last minute appeal of the City Contemporary Art Museum’s strong-minded Director. Like another recent iteration of the theme, Dayle Ann Dodds’s Henry’s Amazing Machine (2004), illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker, the unusual language adds great read-aloud potential. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59643-115-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
Sloat collaborates with Huffman, a Yu’pik storyteller, to infuse a traditional “origins” tale with the joy of creating. Hearing the old women of her village grumble that they have only tasteless crowberries for the fall feast’s akutaq—described as “Eskimo ice cream,” though the recipe at the end includes mixing in shredded fish and lard—young Anana carefully fashions three dolls, then sings and dances them to life. Away they bound, to cover the hills with cranberries, blueberries, and salmonberries. Sloat dresses her smiling figures in mixes of furs and brightly patterned garb, and sends them tumbling exuberantly through grassy tundra scenes as wildlife large and small gathers to look on. Despite obtrusively inserted pronunciations for Yu’pik words in the text, young readers will be captivated by the action, and by Anana’s infectious delight. (Picture book/folktale. 6-8)
Pub Date: June 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-88240-575-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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