This Dylan Thomas–Dr. Seuss–Lewis Carroll love child has the power to enrapture, with lots of practice.
Halloween night brings an epic battle between hordes of “SKUL-A-MUG-MUGS” (skeletons) and the “tyke-tots” (children) who want to go out trick-or-treating.
Heidbreder crafts his tale in rhyming nonsensical text, while Martz illustrates in a cartoon style with a strict palette of black, grays, white, yellow, orange and reds. Set against the dark night, the menacing skeletons boast how they will “brain-frizz tall-bigs. / Halloween they’ll deep nix. / They’ll shup-clup inside / nasty Noras and Nicks!” But the costumed kids rally—they are not “splooked-out” like their parents. On a vibrantly red double-page spread, the two forces splendidly clash on a neighborhood street: “The scare-fest crish-crashed, / up-over-round under… // …but strong-sure tyke-tots / out movvered SKUL thunder.” Soon the skeletons disappear, adults shake off their fears, and the children resume their Halloween quest for candy. All ends well on a high fueled by the exciting victory and the profusion of “sweet-treats.” Some readers will enjoy puzzling out the meanings of the many made-up words or simply relish how the language sounds when read aloud. But others may not be up to the task of so much decoding, even if the impeccably detailed pictures help provide much-needed clues to the action.
This Dylan Thomas–Dr. Seuss–Lewis Carroll love child has the power to enrapture, with lots of practice. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55453-302-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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