Spine-tingling, enlightening, and fun.
This graphic novel from cartoonist Liniers weaves together a trio of Latin American folktales full of thrills and chills.
Unable to sleep, a sister asks her brother, “Can you tell me a story? A SCARY one.” The brother obliges, sharing two gripping tales, while his sister returns the favor with the third and final tale, a nice bookend that brings the night to its unsettling end. In “The Mermaid and the Pink Dolphin,” Capitão Gabriel encounters a mermaid known as the Iara while sailing the Amazon River with only his pet monkey. Despite warnings from old sailors back on land, Capitão Gabriel cannot resist the mermaid’s watery allure. In “The Owl of Doom,” the ominous La Lechuza—a witch-owl who foretells death—terrorizes a town, leading to a hilarious solution to the townspeople’s woes. And in “The Evil Light,” two gauchos on the pampas trade rumors of a demonic force that searches the plains for souls to devour. Interjections from the siblings add an appealing dose of humor, accentuated by Liniers’ artwork, full of intricate linework and muted colors. An introduction from author and scholar David Bowles contextualizes these folktales within the broader historical arc of European colonization and the systematic erasure of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture, tracing modern retellings to their roots in Indigenous traditions and storytelling. An appendix provides further background info on each story.
Spine-tingling, enlightening, and fun. (map, bibliography) (Graphic anthology. 6-10)Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781662665295
Page Count: 48
Publisher: TOON Books/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
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What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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