Visually marvelous, like its subject—with a text more poetic than expository.
This latest collaboration between Fleming and Rohmann explores the elusive giant squid.
Fleming focuses as much on lingering unknowns as facts, introducing uncertainty in a poetic prologue: "Who are these giants of the dark seas?… // It is a mystery. // After all, how can you know / about an animal hidden from view? / You must rely on clues, / as scientists do...." Rohmann's full-bleed oil-on-paper pictures convey the squid's enormous size by capturing only its parts. Its two tentacles, "curling and twisting and thirty feet long," undulate both within the picture plane and outside it. After a barracuda’s foiled by squid ink, dramatic double gatefolds open, revealing that even a yardwide page can’t fully contain this creature. Sea depths are dark teal, purpled, or blackened; gorgeously crisp white text type casts its own light. Anatomical details elicit Fleming's most assertive descriptions. As tentacles enfold a fish, "they latch on with powerful / sucker-studded clubs. / ... / Suckers ringed with saw-like teeth / that rip into skin and hold on tight." There’s a startling close-up of "the beak. / Bone-hard and parrot-like." Poetic compression occasionally results in obfuscation. Accounting for the squid's huge eyes, Fleming elides bioluminescence (effectively, jellyfishes’ early-warning system of approaching predators), discernible by the squid only as “a shimmering outline.” The creature’s potential color changes are mentioned speculatively, without further qualification.
Visually marvelous, like its subject—with a text more poetic than expository. (labeled diagram of giant squid, author’s note, bibliography, web resources, suggested books) (Informational picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59643-599-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
