Fun to read aloud, as well as offering clever encouragement to think outside the linguistic box.
In the same vein as the droll old bit of nonsense “Master of All Masters,” Rocha’s 1976 tale, newly translated for English-speaking readers, features a lad who insists on using his own fanciful vocabulary.
After asking his puzzled but indulgent parents how a table, a ball, and other items got their names, Marcelo is unsatisfied by their answers and instead decides to come up with his own words. So it is, unfortunately, that when he rushes in, declaring, “Barky’s dogstayer blastflamed,” no one understands until too late that the doghouse is on fire. The story was originally written in Portuguese, and this version is a real tour de force for translator Goldfajn. Not only is the narrative peppered with original coinages that make sense (of a sort) in English, but it’s also infused with general wordplay: “And why, in this Latin language, is a table not called a chair, and a chair is not called hair, and hair is not called bear?” Rather than taking a calamitous turn, the story has a warm feel as Marcelo’s parents take their son’s quirks in stride, just doing their best to keep up with his pronouncements. Matsusaki’s illustrations, also new, underscore the episode’s more surreal aspects by incorporating snipped-out fragments of photos into each scene, including depictions of faces and hands; several figures, among them Marcelo and his mother, have darker skin than others.
Fun to read aloud, as well as offering clever encouragement to think outside the linguistic box. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781734783995
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tapioca Stories
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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