A murky ramble satisfyingly festooned with surreal creatures and detail.
From a Belgian illustrator, a set of sharp challenges to young maze runners and Where’s Waldo fans.
When Finn wakes to find his clothes scattered, his dog Sep vanished, and his multilevel house a shambles thanks to a rascally gang of goblins, the search is on—and then the chase. Thanks to dim lighting, dizzying shifts in locale, and hordes of distractions ranging from flocks of floating sheep to long-nosed, Edward Gorey–style night monsters with glowing eyes, tracing the routes of Finn and his quarry through dense tangles of roads, tunnels, stairways, undersea formations, and flights of sinuous dragons will strain the eyes of the most acute gamers and visual puzzle solvers. Though spotting the text is a challenge too, as it’s printed in teeny-tiny type and squirreled away in some inconspicuous corner on each spread, it does offer both helpful hints (“Luckily, they find a drooling rock, a royal rat and an old dragon pointing the way through the castle dungeons”) and a plotline that ultimately leads Finn back to his home just in time for a goblin-hosted birthday party. In tricksy but time-honored fashion Goes then lists a few previously unmentioned figures hidden in each scene as an incentive to go back. The spreads are mostly monochromatic, with occasional features picked out in a contrasting color; Finn himself is a light-skinned child (or possibly man).
A murky ramble satisfyingly festooned with surreal creatures and detail. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77657-185-7
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Best for readers who have clearly indicated they would like to take their writing efforts to the next level.
A young white girl writes and illustrates a story, which is critiqued by the narrator as it is created.
The girl begins her story by drawing a Hero. Then she thinks maybe a Heroine would be better. Then she decides both will work. She places them in “a good town, filled with good people, called our Setting.” The narrator, an unseen editor who lurks over the artist’s shoulder, tells the storyteller she needs to put in some Conflict, make the Evil Overlord scarier, and give it better action. This tongue-in-cheek way of delivering the rules of creative writing is clever, and paired with Le Huche’s earnest, childlike illustrations, it seems to be aimed at giving helpful direction to aspiring young creators (although the illustrations are not critiqued). But the question needs to be asked: do very young writers really need to know the rules of writing as determined by adults? While the story appears to be about helping young readers learn writing—there is “A Friendly List of Words Used in this Book” at the end with such words as “protagonist” and “antagonist” (glossed as “Hero and Heroine” and “Evil Overlord,” respectively)—it also has a decidedly unhelpful whiff of judgment. Rules, the text seems to say, must be followed for the story to be a Good one. Ouch.
Best for readers who have clearly indicated they would like to take their writing efforts to the next level. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2935-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Will leave readers as happy as a pig in mud.
It’s good to embrace change.
Although an unseen narrator attempts to tell an accustomed version of “The Three Little Pigs”—here named Alan, Alfred, and Alvin Albert—their younger sister, Alison, wants to get in on the action because she’s a natural storyteller. The narrator grudgingly allows Alison to tag along, but her added bits of flavor and the unexpected personalities of her brothers soon send the story off its traditional tracks and into hilarious hijinks. For example, Alan’s love of building allows him to design a functional house made of plastic drinking straws, Alfred’s stick house is actually constructed by Alan because Alfred’s clearly a star and not stage crew, and Alvin’s shacking up in a pumpkin behind Cinderella’s castle because he’s…not the crispiest piece of bacon on the plate. Alison’s quick thinking leads the brothers to be one step ahead of the wandering wolf. When the narrator hits their limit, a conversation with Alison proves that collaboration can lead to unexpected but wonderful results. The story flows well, accompanied by energetic cartoon art, and the choice to color-code the speech bubbles of each character (and the text of the narrator vs. Alison) ensures readers will be able to follow the snappy dialogue. Those who love to make up their own stories will be inspired, and readers who march to the beats of their own drums will be delighted. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Will leave readers as happy as a pig in mud. (Picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-3243-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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