Another milestone in human-mouse collaboration, virtuosic of visuals and tongue in cheek of tone.
To a mouse, even space and time must bend when there’s cheese involved.
Having long looked forward to visiting the world’s greatest cheese festival, a mouse is stunned to find only a hall full of packing crates. “That was yesterday, Einstein!” says a replete fellow rodent sarcastically. “You’re a day late!” Well, might it be possible to turn back time? What is time anyway? As in Armstrong (2016) and Edison (2018), Kuhlmann employs a mix of narrative and fantastically detailed mouse’s-eye-view pencil-and-watercolor scenes to portray a small, furry investigator intrepidly tackling scientific and technological challenges in a human-sized world—here involving old records in a certain Swiss patent office, clock gears and computer parts, trial and error, and equations on chalkboards. Not to mention the guts to climb inside a cobbled-together gizmo and the cleverness, when he accidentally ends up in pre-computer 1905, to entice a certain young patent clerk with a familiar brushy mustache to do the necessary calculations for a return trip—minus a day. This he does with a series of leading riddles about the relationship between space and time (what, you thought Einstein came up with relativity on his own?). The author closes with an overview of the great (human) scientist’s life and a set of reasonably clear thought experiments demonstrating some of his insights. Einstein, drawn with great fidelity, and other, less-distinct human figures are White.
Another milestone in human-mouse collaboration, virtuosic of visuals and tongue in cheek of tone. (Illustrated fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7358-4444-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: NorthSouth
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
A wild romp that champions making space for vulnerable creatures and each other.
A boy with ADHD explores nature and himself.
Eleven-year-old Jake Rizzi just wants to be seen as “normal”; he blames his brain for leading him into trouble and making him do things that annoy his peers and even his own parents. Case in point: He’s stuck spending a week in rural Oregon with an aunt he barely knows while his parents go on vacation. Jake’s reluctance changes as he learns about the town’s annual festival, during which locals search for a fabled turtle. But news of this possibly undiscovered species has spread. Although Aunt Hettle insists to Jake that it’s only folklore, the fame-hungry convene, sure that the Ruby-Backed Turtle is indeed real—just as Jake discovers is the case. Keeping its existence secret is critical to protecting the rare creature from a poacher and others with ill intentions. Readers will keep turning pages to find out how Jake and new friend Mia will foil the caricatured villains. Along the way, Bramucci packs in teachable moments around digital literacy, mindfulness, and ecological interdependence, along with the message that “the only way to protect the natural world is to love it.” Jake’s inner monologue elucidates the challenges and benefits of ADHD as well as practical coping strategies. Whether or not readers share Jake’s diagnosis, they’ll empathize with his insecurities. Jake and his family present white; Mia is Black, and names of secondary characters indicate some ethnic diversity.
A wild romp that champions making space for vulnerable creatures and each other. (Adventure. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781547607020
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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