Problematic for libraries due to the detachable token, but like Mary Javins’ 3-D World Atlas and Tour (2008), the gimmick...
A penguin guide conducts prospective tourists on a whirlwind flight over 28 world cities.
From Amsterdam to Washington, D.C., Li arranges her highly simplified aerial views in alphabetical order. Along with major streets and geographical features, she places on each a select assortment of thumbnail images of architectural highlights, plus comments on distinctive foods, festivals, sports, and other points of interest. Each proto-map also features a handful of arbitrary facts, from characteristic greetings (“Che!” for Buenos Aires, “Ahlan!” for Cairo, “Hey!” for Chicago) to the local language(s) and currency. If half of the chosen cities are in Europe or North America, the other continents (except Antarctica) are at least represented, and though her figures are stylized, the buildings are recognizable and the scattering of tiny humans diverse in dress and skin color. The flyover is sparse of detail and occasionally sloppy; Cairo and Mexico City are misplaced on the world map, for instance, and a head with a feathered bonnet labeled “Aboriginal Canadians” on the Toronto spread is at best an inadequate representation. Still, it provides young armchair travelers with tantalizing notions of each city’s treasures and character as well as a bit of map-reading practice. There is a small removable compass in the cover.
Problematic for libraries due to the detachable token, but like Mary Javins’ 3-D World Atlas and Tour (2008), the gimmick isn’t indispensable to the journey. (review quizzes) (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84365-274-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Pavilion/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated...
The master of the manic patterned tale offers a newly buffed version of his first published book, with appropriately gloppy new illustrations.
Like the previous four iterations (orig. 1979; revised 2004, 2006, 2009), the plot remains intact through minor changes in wording: Each time young Jule Ann ventures outside in clean clothes, a nefarious mud puddle leaps out of a tree or off the roof to get her “completely all over muddy” and necessitate a vigorous parental scrubbing. Petricic gives the amorphous mud monster a particularly tarry look and texture in his scribbly, high-energy cartoon scenes. It's a formidable opponent, but the two bars of smelly soap that the resourceful child at last chucks at her attacker splatter it over the page and send it sputtering into permanent retreat.
Score one for cleanliness. Like (almost) all Munsch, funny as it stands but even better read aloud, with lots of exaggerated sound effects. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55451-427-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There are many parallel legends – the seal women, for example, with their strange sad longings – but none is more direct than this American Indian story of a girl who is carried away in a horses’ stampede…to ride thenceforth by the side of a beautiful stallion who leads the wild horses. The girl had always loved horses, and seemed to understand them “in a special way”; a year after her disappearance her people find her riding beside the stallion, calf in tow, and take her home despite his strong resistance. But she is unhappy and returns to the stallion; after that, a beautiful mare is seen riding always beside him. Goble tells the story soberly, allowing it to settle, to find its own level. The illustrations are in the familiar striking Goble style, but softened out here and there with masses of flowers and foliage – suitable perhaps for the switch in subject matter from war to love, but we miss the spanking clean design of Custer’s Last Battle and The Fetterman Fight. 6-7
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1978
ISBN: 0689845049
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1978
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
