A wonderfully charming mixture of myth and fairy tale.
When her brave father is trapped inside the Sphinx, a fearful young girl must summon her courage to save him.
Marcy Brownstone’s father is a brave explorer who, in the previous volume, Arthur and the Golden Rope (2016), had exciting adventures based on Norse mythology. Harboring fears of the dark, Marcy worries she has not been imbued with the same fortitude as her father. When her father leaves on a quest to retrieve a magical book he believes will help her, he becomes trapped inside the Sphinx that holds it. Marcy must now gather up her resolve and carry out his rescue. This extrication is not without its challenges, as Marcy encounters larger-than-life Egyptian gods, including Thoth, Isis, and Ra. Weaving the theme of finding courage with a whimsical mix of Egyptian mythology, Todd-Stanton has constructed a remarkable world that both delights and edifies. The lush, immersive illustrations, with many full-page action sequences, are sure to enchant and envelop readers. Marcy’s white, heteronormative family gives a nod to conventional fairy-tale tropes with her nearly absent mother (who does make a fleeting cameo). However, Todd-Stanton weaves in a gentle feminist flourish as timid Marcy overcomes her fears to save her father and creates a thoughtfully distinctive take on the father-daughter relationship.
A wonderfully charming mixture of myth and fairy tale. (Picture book. 4-10)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-911171-19-5
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Flying Eye Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Warp back in time for a prehistoric spinoff adventure with Geronimo Stilton’s ancestor, Geronimo Stiltonoot, in Old Mouse City.
Readers will find Geronimo Stiltonoot a familiar character, outfitted differently from descendant Stilton yet still running a newspaper and having wild adventures. In this introduction to prehistoric mouse life, someone has stolen the most powerful and important artifact housed by the Old Mouse City Mouseum: the Stone of Fire. It’s up to Stiltonoot and his fellow sleuth and friend, Hercule Poirat, to uncover not only the theft, but a dangerous plot that jeopardizes all of Old Mouse City. As stand-ins for the rest of the Stilton cast, Stiltonoot has in common with Stilton a cousin named Trap, a sister named Thea and a nephew named Benjamin. The slapstick comedy and design, busy with type changes and color, will be familiar for Stilton readers. The world is fictionalized for comedic effect, featuring funny uses for dinosaurs and cheeky references to how far back in time they are, with only the occasional sidebar that presents facts. The story takes a bit long to get started, spending a lot of time reiterating the worldbuilding information laid out before the first chapter. But once it does start, it is an adventure Stilton readers will enjoy. Geronimo Stiltonoot has the right combination of familiarity and newness to satisfy Stilton fans. (Fiction. 6-10)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-44774-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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