Appealing for entertainers and those who would rather just listen.
What is the point of reading a book aloud?
Greenfield and Lowery’s latest work of metafiction—after I Don’t Want To Read This Book (2021) and This Book Is Not a Present (2022)—features an agitated unseen narrator objecting to the idea of reading a book aloud: “It’s dopey words like aloud that make me want to remain asilent.” The rambling and occasionally digressive complaint provides an excellent canvas for Lowery’s energetic, hand-drawn typography and whimsical, charmingly silly drawings. Nearly every word is in capitals and gets its own color, size, or blocky 3-D rendering, resulting in a set of stage directions for a reader’s voice, graphically indicating pacing and emphasis. The detours from the cranky harangue are amusing. The narrator literally addresses “the elephant in the room”—“Hello, Elephant!”—and a few pages later focuses on the possibility that a word like aplomb could show up. The elephant offers a helpful definition of aplomb with, well, aplomb. Concerns about the pitfalls of performance are at the heart of this monologue. At one point the narrator’s worries (“I mean, what if I lose my place?...What am I supposed to do then? START OVER?”) are itemized on the verso and repeated on the recto. The audience will possibly find this hilarious. The sly paradox, of course, is that the reading aloud of this metatextual discourse contradicts the narrator’s avowed aversion to doing so and does it with panache. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Appealing for entertainers and those who would rather just listen. (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593616581
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent.
Wouldn’t the same housecat look very different to a dog and a mouse, a bee and a flea, a fox, a goldfish, or a skunk?
The differences are certainly vast in Wenzel’s often melodramatic scenes. Benign and strokable beneath the hand of a light-skinned child (visible only from the waist down), the brindled cat is transformed to an ugly, skinny slinker in a suspicious dog’s view. In a fox’s eyes it looks like delectably chubby prey but looms, a terrifying monster, over a cowering mouse. It seems a field of colored dots to a bee; jagged vibrations to an earthworm; a hairy thicket to a flea. “Yes,” runs the terse commentary’s refrain, “they all saw the cat.” Words in italics and in capital letters in nearly every line give said commentary a deliberate cadence and pacing: “The cat walked through the world, / with its whiskers, ears, and paws… // and the fish saw A CAT.” Along with inviting more reflective viewers to ruminate about perception and subjectivity, the cat’s perambulations offer elemental visual delights in the art’s extreme and sudden shifts in color, texture, and mood from one page or page turn to the next.
A solo debut for Wenzel showcasing both technical chops and a philosophical bent. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5013-0
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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