You can now check out the teaser trailer for the upcoming Jim Carrey film based on Mr. Popper’s Penguins. It will all depend on how they twist the classic story.
Month: March 2011
Out of Sight: Sophisticated Popup
Out of Sight by Francesco Pittau and Gervais
This intriguing lift-the-flap and pop up book is really a fun guessing game. From one page to the next, the book changes. First it is silhouettes of animals. Lift the flap and you get the answer of what animal it is plus a fact about that animal. There are also sections where you guess the animal from their tracks, their fur, and their tails. The book is great fun for young science and animal lovers.
The large format of the book will make it challenging on library shelves, but I wouldn’t expect it to sit there for long anyway. Nicely, the flaps and pop ups are sturdy enough to stand up to library use. The concept is a very strong one with plenty of appeal thanks to the strong design elements. Each page is visually attractive and well designed.
At times, the illustrations can be a bit off, making guessing more frustrating. The facts about the animals are random and unrelated to one another, so the occasionally book lacks cohesion.
A great book for reluctant readers, this is less of an informational book and more of an inviting and sophisticated introduction to animals and their variety. Appropriate for ages 4-8.
Reviewed from library copy.
Also reviewed by Jean Little Library.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies On
Frank Cottrell Boyce will be writing a trilogy based on the classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming. The books will be set in modern time with a family descended from the original family. Chitty Flies Again is the first book in the trilogy and will be published by Macmillan on November 4, 2011.
The film script, which may be more familiar for today’s children, was written by Roald Dahl. So Boyce has some big shoes to fill and high expectations to meet.
Lucy Fleming, Ian Fleming’s niece, said: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is thrilled to have Frank Cottrell Boyce, with his humour, his genius and his spanner, sparking her plugs, polishing her chrome and buffing up her bumpers. Her graceful wings are poised to take off on a new flight, with Frank’s skilful but possibly oily hands on the steering wheel."
Via The Bookseller
Paolini’s Series Concludes
Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance series will be completed this autumn with the publication of Interitance, the final book in the Cycle. It will be published on November 8, 2011 in hard cover, e-book and audio formats.
The original three volumes of the series will be reissued in paperback on July 7th.
Octopus Soup: A Yummy Wordless Treat
Octopus Soup by Mercer Mayer
When an octopus climbs up an anchor line and into a fisherman’s basket, it causes all sorts of chaos. The octopus is flung onto the head of someone cleaning the street and from there is chased through a window. Taking refuge in a pitcher of water, the octopus is discovered by a chef with a taste for octopus soup. A chase ensues, ending with the octopus hanging from the dock until it drops into the chef’s waiting soup pot. But don’t fret, there is yet another twist in this tale.
Mayer’s latest features vaudeville physical humor and a timeless story. The wordless story has more than enough humor to keep children giggling, enough tension to keep them wondering what will happen, and more than enough appeal for young readers.
Hand this to children too young to be reading yet who want a book they can “read” on their own. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from library copy.
Booklist’s Top 10 Graphic Novels for Youth
Booklist has a list of their top picks for 2011 Graphic Novels for Youth selected from those reviewed in the past 12 months.
Crogan’s March by Chris Schweizer
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Joann Sfar
The Meeting by Brigitte Luciani
The Odyssey by Homer and Gareth Hinds
Return of the Dapper Men by Jim McCann
Scary Godmother by Jill Thompson
Set to Sea by Drew Weing
Trickster: Native American Tales ed. by Matt Dembicki
The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, illustrated by Randy DuBurke
Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter
Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter by Andy Runton
The popular Owly graphic novels make their picture book debut with this colorful new story. Owly and his best friend Wormy want to make friends with some butterflies. So they plant a milkweed plant, hoping to attract some. All they manage to attract are some bugs that are definitely not butterflies and that are munching on the milkweed leaves. Owly and Wormy make friends with the bugs instead until one day the bugs have to leave. Now Owly and Wormy are left alone. They wait and wait for their friends to return. When they eventually do come back though, Owly and Wormy don’t recognize them!
Runton’s friendly and funny Owly graphic novels are some of my go-to graphic novels for younger children. This new book makes the Owly stories available to even younger readers. With the wordless format, this is a book that will appeal to children just about to become readers themselves.
Add the bright colors to the illustrations and you have a very appealing book that is about friendship and metamorphosis. The cartoon-like illustrations filled with smiling faces large and small are very friendly themselves. The illustrations run from two-page spreads to smaller more graphic-novel-like images that read as panels.
This book takes graphic novels to the youngest readers and introduces them to a friend that they can share adventures with for years to come. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.
Okay for Now: A Brilliant, Amazing Read
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Released April 18, 2011.
Let me make this simple – READ THIS BOOK! If you are a fan of the book this is a companion book to The Wednesday Wars, you will fall head-over-heels for this one. If you never read that book, it doesn’t matter, still read this one. It stands on its own fantastically well. In this book, a small character from The Wednesday Wars is given his own book. Doug Swieteck is a boy who has just moved to a new town with a brother who gets into plenty of trouble, a mother who smiles far too rarely, and a father whose hands are fast when he is angry, which is most of the time. But Doug is more than the “skinny thug” that people assume he is, much more. This coming of age story set in 1968 is about how a entire town can be wrong and how that same town can help raise a boy to be the man he is capable of being.
This is my favorite Schmidt book yet, and that is saying something! The characterizations here are so well rendered. The people are real, tangible and each and every person in the book is human and complex. Yet the book remains fresh, easily read, easily related to, and vibrant. It is a book with space inside it for the reader to make realizations, come to conclusions, and bring their own perspective.
Told in first person by Doug, the voice of the book is entirely his own. It never stumbles, never becomes an adult looking at the situation, never lectures. Instead it learns as it speaks, realizes as it voices and sometimes doesn’t figure out what the reader has come to understand. It is raw, beautiful and heartrending.
I’m afraid I cannot capture in my review what this book is. To say that it should be a contender for an award this year is to lessen it. Instead, this book is one that can honestly change the way a child sees themselves. Not through anything didactic, but instead just allowing an honesty to pervade the book, a realization to happen, art and words to flow and reveal.
An unforgettable book that is sure to be a classic in years to come, this is a book that defies categorization and summary. Appropriate for ages 11-14.
Reviewed from NetGalley digital galley.
Also reviewed by:
New Funny Prize
Cover of Roald Dahl
Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen has started a new book prize that celebrates the funniest of children’s books. The Roald Dahl Funny Prize will reward authors and illustrators who celebrate the humor of life. There will be two categories: age 6 and under, and ages 7-14. The prize will be administered by Booktrust.
The first shortlist will be announced to coincide with the third annual Roald Dahl Day on September 13th.
I can hardly wait!
Waking Brain Cells 