With a seductively Seuss-ean cadence, Ross’ verse adventure delightfully dares young and old to seize the day.
Hollywood headliner Ross, who shepherded to the big screen blockbusters such as Big, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville and, most recently, The Hunger Games, here takes flight with his first poetic venture involving a bedsheet, a boy and a whole lot of imagination.
When a magical “Grandaddy of Winds” blows through the town of Fairview, 10-year-old Bartholomew Biddle grabs the sheet off his bed and thrillingly lofts into the night sky. The wind first spirits Bart to a tropical island, where he befriends some gnarly-looking pirates, who turn out to be sweet and generous, and learns appearances aren’t necessarily what they seem. “You’d have to be daft,” admonishes one of the pirates, “to go through this life / judging books by their covers. / If you jump to conclusions, / what’s left to discover?” On his next flight, Bart makes the acquaintance of one Densmore Horatio Pool, a boy of similar age who longs to fly but initially lacks Bart’s courage to “dare to be daring / when no one will dare you.” Densy eventually defies convention, using a school banner to fly to meet Bart, whose third adventure has landed him in a windless canyon where the formerly fearless inhabitants are now literally “stuck in the doldrums.” Throughout this witty verse novella, themes of self-reliance, kindness and a belief in all things in moderation resound, and Myers’ enchanting, richly textured oils heighten the serious fun spurring the lighthearted didacticism.
With a seductively Seuss-ean cadence, Ross’ verse adventure delightfully dares young and old to seize the day. (Verse fantasy. 6-11)Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4920-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
Thought-provoking and charming.
A sophisticated robot—with the capacity to use senses of sight, hearing, and smell—is washed to shore on an island, the only robot survivor of a cargo of 500.
When otters play with her protective packaging, the robot is accidently activated. Roz, though without emotions, is intelligent and versatile. She can observe and learn in service of both her survival and her principle function: to help. Brown links these basic functions to the kind of evolution Roz undergoes as she figures out how to stay dry and intact in her wild environment—not easy, with pine cones and poop dropping from above, stormy weather, and a family of cranky bears. She learns to understand and eventually speak the language of the wild creatures (each species with its different “accent”). An accident leaves her the sole protector of a baby goose, and Roz must ask other creatures for help to shelter and feed the gosling. Roz’s growing connection with her environment is sweetly funny, reminiscent of Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. At every moment Roz’s actions seem plausible and logical yet surprisingly full of something like feeling. Robot hunters with guns figure into the climax of the story as the outside world intrudes. While the end to Roz’s benign and wild life is startling and violent, Brown leaves Roz and her companions—and readers—with hope.
Thought-provoking and charming. (Science fiction/fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-38199-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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