This ballgame is a board-book miss.
The novelty-book answer to the basketball net on the wastepaper basket.
On the paperboard overwrap that holds this accordion-fold board book together, players are invited to “screw a piece of paper into a ball” and flick it, throw it or shoot it with a rubber band through holes in the book. One side of the book contains various cartoon scenes of sporting events involving balls: basketball, soccer, rugby, tennis and golf. The colorful verso lists numeric point values. A few of the targets will be manageable for young players, but the others (the smallest hole is less than one-half inch in diameter) will prove frustratingly impossible. The companion title, The Game of Mirrors, is also wordless and uses shiny silver pages, a variety of geometric forms and several die-cut holes punched through the center to create a mesmerizing visual experience. Both titles contain the choking-hazard label that has beset many of the other books in the series. While a detachable piece from The Ball Game is likely to blame for this warning, it is quite baffling what the small parts are on The Game of Mirrors, as there are none to be found. While The Ball Game really is most appropriate for children above 3 years since significant coordination is needed, it is too bad Tullet’s American publishers could not find a way to make The Game of Mirrors safe for core board-book readers; babies would have been the perfect audience for this playful exploration.
This ballgame is a board-book miss. (Board book. 3-8)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7148-6688-8
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Phaidon
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2014
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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