This one-joke morality tale includes some engaging details but may nonetheless struggle to find an appreciative audience.
A learned scholar travels to the jungle to seek out his most recent subject of study.
An old white man who has devoted his life to learning is frustrated when he realizes that there is a gap in his knowledge. After months of intensive study, he sets out to get a glimpse of his subject—the Bengal tiger—in its native habitat. Guided by an Indian local, “a rather simple young man,” the scholar pontificates as the two travel through the jungle together, overwhelming the young man (and possibly readers as well). The guide attempts several times to interject but is steamrollered by the scholar’s verbosity. Face to face with the animal at last, the old man is distraught to discover that none of his knowledge has prepared him for the reality of a hostile predator. Alzial’s text, translated from the French, is long and dense, peppered with complex scientific vocabulary. Rajcak’s fine-lined, black-and-white drawings, splashed with oranges, browns, and greens, are similarly sophisticated. Intentionally old-fashioned in appearance, they include complicated diagrams and anatomical details alternating with scenes depicting the action. Both words and pictures have a slyly ironic tone, clearly poking fun at the scholar’s vanity. Unfortunately, the knowing contrast between the learned man’s ignorance and the local hunter’s knowledge is undercut somewhat when the latter acts “instinctively” to avoid the tiger.
This one-joke morality tale includes some engaging details but may nonetheless struggle to find an appreciative audience. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8028-5529-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with...
Reynolds and Brown have crafted a Halloween tale that balances a really spooky premise with the hilarity that accompanies any mention of underwear.
Jasper Rabbit needs new underwear. Plain White satisfies him until he spies them: “Creepy underwear! So creepy! So comfy! They were glorious.” The underwear of his dreams is a pair of radioactive-green briefs with a Frankenstein face on the front, the green color standing out all the more due to Brown’s choice to do the entire book in grayscale save for the underwear’s glowing green…and glow they do, as Jasper soon discovers. Despite his “I’m a big rabbit” assertion, that glow creeps him out, so he stuffs them in the hamper and dons Plain White. In the morning, though, he’s wearing green! He goes to increasing lengths to get rid of the glowing menace, but they don’t stay gone. It’s only when Jasper finally admits to himself that maybe he’s not such a big rabbit after all that he thinks of a clever solution to his fear of the dark. Brown’s illustrations keep the backgrounds and details simple so readers focus on Jasper’s every emotion, writ large on his expressive face. And careful observers will note that the underwear’s expression also changes, adding a bit more creep to the tale.
Perfect for those looking for a scary Halloween tale that won’t leave them with more fears than they started with. Pair with Dr. Seuss’ tale of animate, empty pants. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0298-0
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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