From where to buy those elements you just gotta have to where to go to find inspiration, Schwartz has included it all, and...
Combining a history of Lego, interviews with prominent Lego builders and ideas for bringing models to the next level of inventiveness, this book will speak both to readers who are just starting out and to those looking to refine their skills.
From descriptions of scale and the uses of many of the Lego elements to discussions of patterns, textures and composition, Schwartz takes the usual themes for Lego models—figures, buildings, vehicles, animals, robots and mechs, and spacecraft—and shows readers how to build(!) on those ideas. The format makes this accessible to a wide age range: Photos of amazing models will pique younger readers’ interest and have them reading the fine print (and wishing the margins between the columns were bigger) to figure out how to replicate them (though there are no building instructions). Meanwhile, older readers will be engrossed in the interviews and descriptions of how to create shapes that accurately reflect reality, something that can sometimes be difficult with the blocky plastic bricks. A few standouts include the SNOT building technique—Studs Not On Top—making mosaics with cheese-slope bricks (don’t miss the stained-glass windows made using this technique) and photography techniques for capturing models for posterity.
From where to buy those elements you just gotta have to where to go to find inspiration, Schwartz has included it all, and Lego fans will want this close to hand as both inspiration and guide for their next builds. (Nonfiction. 9 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59327-553-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: No Starch Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote...
Two republished tales by a Greco-Cherokee author feature both folkloric and modern elements as well as new illustrations.
One of the two has never been offered south of the (Canadian) border. In “Coyote Sings to the Moon,” the doo-wop hymn sung nightly by Old Woman and all the animals except tone-deaf Coyote isn’t enough to keep Moon from hiding out at the bottom of the lake—until she is finally driven forth by Coyote’s awful wailing. She has been trying to return to the lake ever since, but that piercing howl keeps her in the sky. In “Coyote’s New Suit” he is schooled in trickery by Raven, who convinces him to steal the pelts of all the other animals while they’re bathing, sends the bare animals to take clothes from the humans’ clothesline, and then sets the stage for a ruckus by suggesting that Coyote could make space in his overcrowded closet by having a yard sale. No violence ensues, but from then to now humans and animals have not spoken to one another. In Eggenschwiler’s monochrome scenes Coyote and the rest stand on hind legs and (when stripped bare) sport human limbs. Old Woman might be Native American; the only other completely human figure is a pale-skinned girl.
Though usually cast as the trickster, Coyote is more victim than victimizer, making this a nice complement to other Coyote tales. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Cold indeed is the heart not made warm by this bubbly fairy-tale romance. Raised by a kindly forest troll, Christian knows little of the world beyond what he can see through his telescope, but gazing upon a nearby castle, he falls head over heels for Princess Marigold. What chance has he, though, as a (supposed) commoner? When at last he nerves himself to send her a message via carrier pigeon, she answers and the courtship is on—via “p-mail” at first, then, after he lands a job as a castle servant, face to face. Setting numerous fairy-tale conventions just a bit askew, Ferris (Of Sound Mind, 2001, etc.) surrounds her two smart, immensely likable teenagers, who are obviously made for each other, with rival suitors, hyperactive dogs, surprising allies, and strong adversaries. The most notable among the last is devious, domineering Queen Olympia, intent on forcing Marigold into marriage with a penniless, but noble, cipher. The author gets her commonsensical couple to “I Do” through brisk palace intrigue, life-threatening situations, riotous feasting, and general chaos; Queen Olympia gets suitable comeuppance, and the festivities are capped by the required revelation that Christian is actually heir to the throne of neighboring Zandelphia. Fans of Gail Carson Levine’s Princess Tales will be in familiar territory here, as well as seventh heaven. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-15-216791-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002
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