Using freely drawn shapes, a few words of commentary, blinding colors and a playful postmodern sensibility, Tullet crafts visual extravaganzas in celebration of the five senses—plus one. Each quarto page offers a bright surprise, from optical illusions to a glued-on reflective square; from a page of pasta shapes to fanciful, semiabstract figures laughing, embracing, tickling and grinning toothily; from a Braille alphabet to specks of “ant poo” opposite a huge blob of “elephant poo,” separated by a die-cut nose that flips back and forth. Closing with pages of arrows, spirals and blotches evoking a mysterious sixth sense—imagination, perhaps?—this conveys a stimulating invitation to take fresh stock of everyday sights, sounds and the rest. (Picture book. 7-10)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-85437-581-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Tate/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2005
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS
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Readers learn how to “Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent” what some might call trash into treasures.
Rhyming poems each introduce a single way to reuse/reinvent something: A toilet becomes a planter, the titular shoe morphs into a birdhouse, a (very large, nonstandard) light bulb houses a fish, and favorite jeans that are holey? They become a new purse. The most creative has to be a table supported by a pitchfork: “If you’re wanting to picnic on uneven ground, / where your table’s unstable or up on a mound, / stop and think! Be creative! The answer’s around.” While cans, wood and wire are both easily found and transformed into musical instruments, not all these projects use such common materials or are as simple to complete: Half of a boat turns into a covered bench, a car becomes a bed, and a grocery cart transforms into a chair. And although it’s neat to see a farmer’s new watering trough (an enormous tire) and a community’s new playground (an old ambulance anchors it), these are not projects that are likely to fire readers up to do similar things. Cartoon spot illustrations share space with photographs of the new inventions, and both are needed to make sense of the poems.
This may spark a few imaginations, but its lack of directions and the difficulty level of most of the projects—not to mention its failure to impart reasons for reducing, reusing and recycling—make this one to skip. (Poetry. 7-10)Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55451-642-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A train load of wild and wacky animals gets so noisy that the engineer has to shout to get them to quiet down. The little black train picks up yaks, acrobats, a troupe of ducks, and stomping elephants as passengers. But when two mice that are in to fireworks climb aboard, the engineer threatens to stop the whole train. “ ‘Keep it down!’ yells Driver Zach. ‘You’re giving me a headache attack!’ “ Everyone quickly hushes up, and soon, “the only sound you hear, in fact,/is the sound of the wheels on the railroad track. Clickety clack, clickety clack.” The words bounce along to the rhythm of a train on its way, and the swell of the sound effects makes this a joy to read aloud. Spengler’s robust illustrations capture an antic cast of passengers, conveying the action as much through composition as color. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-670-87946-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION
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