Likely to prompt young city dwellers to a broader understanding of their environment.
A survey of typical urban features and structures, with flaps and gatefolds offering peeks beneath the surface.
In simplified schematic views populated by small, generic figures of diverse age and skin color, Hancock (who also illustrated Jane Price’s Underworld: Exploring the Secret World Beneath Your Feet, 2014) traces the growth of a city from early village and walled town to bustling metropolis. Closer street-level looks at types of buildings and green spaces, high rises, general services, government buildings, and recreational facilities follow, capped by an unlikely but properly futuristic vision of self-contained cities built within stacked-up domes. The tidbits within are tailor-made for detail-hungry young readers, as in one flap that lifts to reveal Big Bertha, the “biggest tunnel boring machine in the world” at over 17 meters across, and a gatefold that opens to present a cross section of what lies beneath the streets. The city presented is fairly generically European, but specific examples are taken from all over the world, including Toronto, Hong Kong, and Seoul. Though the commentary scattered through each scene occasionally devolves to chatter (“How many things can you see?”), Feroze’s concise explanations of spaces, processes, and elements of infrastructure are generalized enough to be applicable to many specific locales.
Likely to prompt young city dwellers to a broader understanding of their environment. (Informational novelty book. 7-10)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78657-022-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Lonely Planet
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Thomas polishes up nine anecdotes and pourquoi tales collected by Hurston, but only recently rediscovered (along with hundreds more) and published in a collection for adults. Originally transcribed in dialect, their regional flavor has been toned down, but not completely erased: when Porpoise outraces the Sun, for instance, God says, “Aw, no, this ain’t gonna do!” and fixes Porpoise’s tail “on crossways.” Sandwiched between not-quite-identical versions of “Why the Buzzard Has No Home,” these short tales of rivalry (“Why the Dog Hates the Cat”), friendship (“Why the Frog Got Eyes and Mole Got Tail”), and troubles explained (“Why Flies Get the First Taste”) will appeal to readers and tellers alike for their simplicity, humor, and action. To all of this, Collier adds an unexpected, but not overdone, layer of visual complexity with painted collages in which easily recognizable animals and background features, abstract forms, and swirls of color coexist. Younger audiences might not know Hurston as a folklorist; here’s help for that, in an inviting mix of tales and familiar ones made fresh. (Folk tales. 7-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-06-000643-9
Page Count: 42
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2004
Hits the sweet spot between chortles and choked screams.
Ten monsters from myth and legend take a bow—each furnished with competitive scores in five monstrous characteristics and a portrait in full, lurid melodramaticolor.
Arranged 10th to first on a cumulated “Beast Power” rating based on Strength, Repulsiveness, Special Powers, Ferocity, and Invincibility, each creature except the glowering Echidna (who resembles Patti Smith in a giant snake outfit) is posed in Chilvers’ painted scenes looming out of mist or wave, stupendous dentifrice on full display, in the midst of a ferocious attack. Peebles begins each profile with a perfunctory scenario (“A cloud of fear hung over the village. For months an Oni had been lurking by the village gates…”). She then explains how each monster was or might be defeated and identifies the culture or a literary work with which it is associated. Following a recapitulative “Rogues’ Gallery,” she closes with notes on related subjects, such as the dragon Fafnir’s cursed golden ring. Readers will find this bestiary thrilling edutainment, though they are sure to wonder how the Balinese Leyak, which are “disembodied heads propelled by the pulsating movement of their own entrails,” only come in as No. 9. The co-published Giants and Trolls (a third new volume in the series, Mighty Mutants, was not seen) offers similar draws, though Cuchulain is an odd choice for inclusion.
Hits the sweet spot between chortles and choked screams. (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-6341-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Hungry Tomato/Lerner
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
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