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ONCE UPON AN ORDINARY SCHOOL DAY

Name: ONCE UPON AN ORDINARY SCHOOL DAY
Author: Colin McNaughton
ISBN: 0-374-35634-3

by Colin McNaughton & illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2005

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This import pays tribute to inspirational teachers everywhere with a tale of an “ordinary” child whose dormant imagination blooms in the classroom. When a new teacher strides in, juggling a gramophone and an armload of records—and bringing color to the previously all-sepia illustrations—the class reacts skeptically at first. But his invitation to let the music make mental pictures falls on variously fertile ground. While some children fall asleep or read comics, and others make up typical adventure tales, the “ordinary” child’s drab, routine world bursts into a series of wordless spreads. There he visits teeming tropical climes on elephant-back, dives through schools of exotic fish, soars with the birds and that night (having properly thanked the teacher after school and heard the exciting words, “See you tomorrow”) dreams “extraordinary” dreams. Young readers (or teachers, for that matter) wondering what school is really for may get a clue here. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: March 10, 2005

ISBN: 0-374-35634-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
NOT LAST NIGHT BUT THE NIGHT BEFORE
by Colin McNaughton & illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ALIENS ARE COMING!
by Colin McNaughton & illustrated by Colin McNaughton

- BOOK REVIEW
WE’RE OFF TO LOOK FOR ALIENS
by Colin McNaughton & illustrated by Colin McNaughton

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RAPUNZEL

adapted by Rachel Isadora & illustrated by Rachel Isadora ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2008

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Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your dreads! Isadora once again plies her hand using colorful, textured collages to depict her fourth fairy tale relocated to Africa. The narrative follows the basic story line: Taken by an evil sorceress at birth, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower; Rapunzel and the prince “get married” in the tower and she gets pregnant. The sorceress cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and tricks the prince, who throws himself from the tower and is blinded by thorns. The terse ending states: “The prince led Rapunzel and their twins to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy and lived happily every after.” Facial features, clothing, dreadlocks, vultures and the prince riding a zebra convey a generic African setting, but at times, the mixture of patterns and textures obfuscates the scenes. The textile and grain characteristic of the hewn art lacks the elegant romance of Zelinksy’s Caldecott version. Not a first purchase, but useful in comparing renditions to incorporate a multicultural aspect. (Picture book/fairy tale. 6-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-399-24772-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
DO I HAVE TO WEAR A COAT?
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

- BOOK REVIEW
MY DOG LAUGHS
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

- BOOK REVIEW
I JUST WANT TO SAY GOOD NIGHT
by Rachel Isadora ; illustrated by Rachel Isadora

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IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT

by Andrea Beaty & illustrated by David Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2007

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A repressive teacher almost ruins second grade for a prodigy in this amusing, if overwritten, tale. Having shown a fascination with great buildings since constructing a model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa from used diapers at age two, Iggy sinks into boredom after Miss Greer announces, throwing an armload of histories and craft projects into the trash, that architecture will be a taboo subject in her class. Happily, she changes her views when the collapse of a footbridge leaves the picnicking class stranded on an island, whereupon Iggy enlists his mates to build a suspension bridge from string, rulers and fruit roll-ups. Familiar buildings and other structures, made with unusual materials or, on the closing pages, drawn on graph paper, decorate Roberts’s faintly retro cartoon illustrations. They add an audience-broadening element of sophistication—as would Beaty’s decision to cast the text into verse, if it did not result in such lines as “After twelve long days / that passed in a haze / of reading, writing and arithmetic, / Miss Greer took the class / to Blue River Pass / for a hike and an old-fashioned picnic.” Another John Lithgow she is not, nor is Iggy another Remarkable Farkle McBride (2000), but it’s always salutary to see young talent vindicated. (Picture book. 6-8)