From the magical land of the silvery bubble-blowing Moonchild, a bubble popping in little Prince Orla’s ear suddenly makes him profoundly deaf. His worried, joyless parents hire several ineffectual fools to restore their son to their hearing world. The most ridiculous looking one is ready to tie elephant-sized ears on the prince’s head. The royal soothsayer understands immediately that the child comprehends the world with his eyes, and the soothsayer is commandingly credible, because he wears magical symbols: star, tree and bird. Graceful Moonbird comes to the rescue, flying the prince to a magical school where a gazelle and silver monkey teach him “eye music,” and tell him he can teach his parents hand talking and silent mouthing. However, his parents are clueless until Moonchild blows an enormous bubble that bursts over their kingdom, changing their intricate yet barren landscape and their hearts. Ray’s luminous art and lyrical text are heavy with symbolism: Those who understand sign language and the powers of observation are adorned in the most silver trees, birds and stars, and others find adornment as they learn. Young readers will understand with help the clear message that sign language education for children who are deaf is essential to their healthy growth, and that it is a tremendous step forward for all people to increase their observation skills to learn it. But this heavy, controversial message won’t be swallowed easily. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-385-60589-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2007
Fast and furious action guaranteed to keep new readers laughing and turning pages.
Never underestimate the chaotic fun that magic and an angry bouncing ball can create.
When Frog goes to the library, he borrows a book on magic. He then heads to a nearby park to read up on the skills necessary to becoming “a great magician.” Suddenly, a deflated yellow ball lands with a “Thud!” at his feet. Although he flexes his new magician muscles, Frog’s spells fall as flat as the ball. But when Frog shouts “Phooey!” and kicks the ball away, it inflates to become a big, angry ball. The ball begins to chase Frog, so he seeks shelter in the library—and Frog and ball turn the library’s usual calm into chaos. The cartoon chase crescendos. The ball bounces into the middle of a game of chess, interrupts a puppet show, and crashes into walls and bookcases. Staying just one bounce ahead, Frog runs, hides, grabs a ride on a book cart, and scatters books and papers as he slides across the library furniture before an alligator patron catches the ball and kicks it out the library door. But that’s not the end of the ball….Caple’s tidy panels and pastel-hued cartoons make a surprisingly effective setting for the slapstick, which should have young readers giggling. Simple sentences—often just subject and verb—with lots of repetition propel the action. Frog’s nonsense-word spells (“Poof Wiffle, Bop Bip!”) are both funny and excellent practice in phonetics. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Fast and furious action guaranteed to keep new readers laughing and turning pages. (Graphic early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4341-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Hopping from head to head, a wizard’s errant hat works a quick series of transformations in this giddy, rhymed episode. As gangs of delighted children look on in Tusa’s (Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden, 2001, etc.) populous, loosely drawn watercolors, the hat, a quirky blue number resembling an upside-down tureen, changes a crabby man into an oversized toad, a park-bench snoozer into a bear, and so on. At last, a gigantic, smiling wizard dances into the picture to reclaim it and turns everyone back to normal. Until his arrival, the last rhyming word in each verse is printed on the following page to heighten suspense, so this broad, lively successor to Tony Johnston’s Witch’s Hat (1984) will have children demanding repeated readings and completing each verse at top volume: “Oh, the magic hat, the magic hat! / It moved like this, it moved like that! / It spun through the air / (It’s true! It’s true!) / And sat on the head of a . . . KANGAROO!” (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-15-201025-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002
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