The next step is obvious: Add your own favorite reading situation to the list, then label and illustrate it.
Not an instruction manual, but a delightfully extravagant demonstration of the persistence of reading and readers.
With a cat. Under a tree. Beneath a table. Out loud. Under the bedcovers. In the sun. In the hospital. In the bath. Dozens of readers, concisely labeled by type or practice (“The Time-Honored Tree Leaner,” “The Fireside Cushion Hog”), are drolly captured in these—and many other—common (and some uncommon) reading situations. Their elongated cartoon figures are differentiated by hairstyle, size, and skin color, though their clothing is always snappy. Chaud’s agile linework is flavored by shades of persimmon, verdigris, and lemon. In all seasons, weathers, and scenarios, alone or together, these bibliophiles resist distraction and discomfort to pursue the written word. Most instances are amusing, offering many opportunities to recognize one’s own or others’ behavior, often in an exaggerated form—“The Sleepwalker” (who “lives dangerously”), absorbed by a good read, unwittingly steps into an open manhole. But the final few pages of this French import unexpectedly suggest a gloriously serious “why” to read a book: Reading isn’t just an escape from the world; through reading, one’s imagination can “transform the world.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
The next step is obvious: Add your own favorite reading situation to the list, then label and illustrate it. (Picture book. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781636550824
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Red Comet Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A thoughtful and entertaining story of how we got from trading a pig for a sack of rye to “Chapter Fifteen: In which we...
A snappy course in the evolution of exchange.
Jenkins is thorough but not so thorough as to make the dismal science dismal to his readers. He offers lively explanations for barter, then refinements on the bartering system and the moment when parties agreed upon a medium of exchange: wampum, gemstones—and gold, in all its luster, its malleability, its exquisiteness. From there, he takes readers to weights and measures; banks, black markets and usury; interest earned and interest paid; inflation and deflation; crashes and runs on banks. Maybe because there has been enough already, Jenkins steers clear of loan-sharking and what happens when you can’t pay your debt. It’s all related in a simple, colloquial style that will keep readers engaged: “Wouldn’t it be handy if you could swap your goat for something easy to keep and carry around and that everybody wanted?” The text is urged along by the fine illustrations of Kitamura, which sometimes hint at the old Johnny Hart comic strip “B.C.,” with its touch of subversive humor. Jenkins closes with a caution: “[T]here’s a danger that you start believing that buying and selling are the only important things in life”—how many economics textbooks include that?
A thoughtful and entertaining story of how we got from trading a pig for a sack of rye to “Chapter Fifteen: In which we discover how easy it is for money to disappear.” (author’s note, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6763-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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