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NIGHT CIRCUS

Children who have not yet gained a sense of irony will particularly enjoy the seemingly random but carefully delineated...

A modern master of surrealism presents an astonishing traveling circus.

A man is walking his dog along the highway at night. Coming toward them is a car pulling 10 flatbeds, each with a performance piece taking place upon it. The car is driven by the man’s cat, Pluto. The man is astonished and intrigued as he watches all the cars pass by and they then all move from the dark into the golden light of a desert mirage. It is all surreal, and Delessert is a master of visual absurdity. The human-sized cat who is driving the car looks more like a rat in cat’s clothing. The three clowns, named for Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, sport their namesakes’ signatures: Franz is turning into a cockroach, and Eugene wears a rhinoceros’ horn. On another car, angels play chess with pieces that look familiar but not quite identifiable. The three little pigs (actually quite large) are about to cut into a wolf pie—the crust of which looks more sheeplike than anything else. A snow globe is filled with butterflies. The whole is neither dreamlike nor nightmarish but resides somewhere in that state where new words and old words and images come together and collide.

Children who have not yet gained a sense of irony will particularly enjoy the seemingly random but carefully delineated juxtaposition of image and idea. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: March 17, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-56846-277-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company

Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015

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LUCY TRIES BASKETBALL

From the Lucy Tries Sports series

It’s a slam dunk

Lucy discovers that the way to learn to play basketball is with friends on a neighborhood court.

Lucy loves playing in the park, and one day she and her friends join their friend Ava and her cousin in their new favorite sport: basketball. Pro player Jermaine, aka “Coach J,” teaches all the basics—footwork, quick passes, dribbling, and a variety of shots. But he also encourages the players to keep trying when they miss, stresses the value of teamwork, and focuses on fun as they learn and later play a practice game. At the end of the workout, Coach J invites the young players to watch him and his team play. Written in loose rhyming couplets, the text has many near rhymes and inconsistent meter. While the storyline is predictable, the book is a good introduction to basketball terms, and young basketball players and fans will appreciate reading about themselves. Vivid silhouetted figures against a white background portray male and female players of several races; Lucy herself is white while Ava and Coach J are black. One young player competes from a wheelchair. A half page of backmatter explains the history of basketball, the NBA and its players, and wheelchair basketball, and one entry also explains the three-on-three basketball that the children play. The book publishes in a simultaneous French edition translated by Rachel Martinez.

It’s a slam dunk . (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4598-1697-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orca

Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019

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NOT ME!

An early reader that kids will want to befriend.

In an odd-couple pairing of Bear and Chipmunk, only one friend is truly happy to spend the day at the beach.

“Not me!” is poor Chipmunk’s lament each time Bear expresses the pleasure he takes in sunning, swimming, and other activities at the beach. While controlled, repetitive text makes the story accessible to new readers, slapstick humor characterizes the busy watercolor-and-ink illustrations and adds interest. Poor Chipmunk is pinched by a crab, buried in sand, and swept upside down into the water, to name just a few mishaps. Although other animal beachgoers seem to notice Chipmunk’s distress, Bear cheerily goes about his day and seems blithely ignorant of his friend’s misfortunes. The playful tone of the illustrations helps soften the dynamic so that it doesn’t seem as though Chipmunk is in grave danger or that Bear is cruel. As they leave at the end of the book Bear finally asks, “Why did you come?” and Chipmunk’s sweet response caps off the day with a warm sunset in the background.

An early reader that kids will want to befriend. (Early reader. 5-7)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-8234-3546-3

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015

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