NIGHT CIRCUS
Delessert, Etienne Illus. by Delessert, Etienne Creative Editions/Creative Company (32 pp.) $19.99 | Mar. 17, 2015 978-1-56846-277-6 A modern master of surrealism presents an astonishing traveling circus. A man is walking his dog along the highway at night. Coming toward them is a car pulling 10 flatbeds, each with a performance piece taking place upon it. The car is driven by the man’s cat, Pluto. The man is astonished and intrigued as he watches all the cars pass by and they then all move from the dark into the golden light of a desert mirage. It is all surreal, and Delessert is a master of visual absurdity. The human-sized cat who is driving the car looks more like a rat in cat’s clothing. The three clowns, named for Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, sport their namesakes’ signatures: Franz is turning into a cockroach, and Eugene wears a rhinoceros’ horn. On another car, angels play chess with pieces that look familiar but not quite identifiable. The three little pigs (actually quite large) are about to cut into a wolf pie—the crust of which looks more sheeplike than anything else. A snow globe is filled with butterflies. The whole is neither dreamlike nor nightmarish but resides somewhere in that state where new words and old words and images come together and collide. Children who have not yet gained a sense of irony will particularly enjoy the seemingly random but carefully delineated juxtaposition of image and idea. (Picture book. 5-8)
A TICKET AROUND THE WORLD
Diaz, Natalia; Owens, Melissa Illus. by Smith, Kim Owlkids Books (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 15, 2015 978-1-77147-051-3 Rather than a comprehensive trip around the world, a quick expedition to 13 far-flung countries. A nameless, stateless Caucasian boy introduces friends from some countries not often mentioned in books of this ilk: Botswana, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Morocco, Jordan and Greece. Other countries are the usual suspects: the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, China, India and Australia. An introductory double-page world map includes pages numbers for each country. The cheery narrator proceeds to each place and provides similar facts. Each double-page spread shows a map, the flag and the climate in a little oval. A sight such as the Great Wall of China or the Parthenon is often included, favorite foods (but no recipes) are described, and a celebration is sometimes mentioned. The children the boy meets live in both urban and rural settings, but they take their “friend” to other regions to show that people live in different ways. There is no |
index or bibliography. All in all, the book, with its upbeat quiz at the end (“In Costa Rica, what volcano did Alberto and I visit?”), resembles an expanded magazine article more than a thoughtful global tour. Pictures such as those found in Music Everywhere (2014) and Maya Ajmera’s other photo essays with Cynthia Pon and other collaborators serve children better than the busy, retro cartoony illustrations here. Young readers need to know about their peers in other countries, but this looks like a book their grandparents might have read. (Informational picture book. 5-8)
WHISTLE-BLOWERS Exposing Crime and Corruption
Doeden, Matt Twenty-First Century/Lerner (96 pp.) $33.32 PLB | Apr. 1, 2015 978-1-4677-4209-2 PLB Doeden makes the effort here to bring whistleblowing out of the seamy shadows and describe its role. It may be a new word, but whistleblowing is no new phenomenon; the Continental Congress acknowledged the citizen’s duty “to give the earliest information to Congress or any other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds and misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge.” Of course, this brings up the age-old question of who is spying on the spies or, even more vital: to whom does a whistleblower give the information? Doeden makes it clear that whistleblowing is a selfless deed, one that may well have implications for the whistleblower down the road, including exile, as those in Washington wrangle over whether Homeland Security trumps the First Amendment when it comes to “misconduct, frauds and misdemeanors.” As Doeden shows, nearly one-third of the states do not have laws protecting whistleblowers’ “rights to report illegal activity [as] part of a philosophy of social obligation...when it could prevent or reduce harm of suffering.” To illustrate his case, he draws a number of sharp vignettes (accompanied by photographs) of whistleblowing importance: Enron, the Jerry Sandusky scandal, Watergate, FBI withholding of crucial 9/11 information; Edward Snowden’s story leads everything off. A keen challenge to received opinions for high schoolers to chew long and hard upon. (Nonfiction. 13-18)
kirkus.com
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children ’s
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teen
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15 january 2015
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97