Review by New York Times Review
FOR VERY YOUNG children, even a trip to a grocery store can be thrilling. Cheese samples, the fish department and the dewy surprise of automatic misting in the produce section: Lots of marvels are packed in those prosaic aisles. Some of the most enduring children's books transform something ordinary - a purple crayon, a wardrobe, a red pebble - into vehicles for exhilarating journeys. Three new picture books follow the tradition. In space, at sea, in a twilight world - these books take readers on escapes so transporting it's a pleasure to get lost. Aaron Becker's new book, "Return," bridges the divide between the mundane and the fantastic. "Return" is the final book in his wordless trilogy that began spectacularly with "Journey," which won a Caldecott Honor, and continued with the fast-paced "Quest." Each book follows the creative mind of a bored, imaginative child who uses an enchanted red marker to draw her way out of her room and into a land of evil warriors, a king of color and dazzling architecture. "Return" begins with a double-page view of a house in a delightfully detailed crosssection. Even the slice of the basement that's visible reveals intriguing details. A guitar and a surfboard hint at the lives above. Blanketed by a wash of sepia, the scene features just a few patches of bright color, which illuminate the page like spotlights: A busy dad works at one end of the house while his daughter appears in the opposite corner, drawing an arched portal on her wall, planning her escape. A red kite on the floor prompts the father to look for his daughter. He follows her through the door into the mythic kingdom. The elegance of the idea, which was so startling and liberating in "Journey" - that door could lead anywhere! - dissipates a little in "Return" as plot points pile up. Now the door leads everywhere. There's a sword fight between a king and an evil warrior, a midair disaster and a submarine exploration that leads father and daughter to some cave paintings that tell a largely inscrutable back story. But despite the kinks in the tale, "Return" offers straight shots of pleasure. The rich jewel-tone world Becker has created in pen and ink and watercolor illustrations is richly cinematic. And in a moving turn, father and daughter take some of that warmth and color back home. On the last page their relationship gets a lift as they fly the red kite together. The landscape covered in "The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles" is largely internal, but the book - the story of a lonely man whose unique job ultimately allows him to connect - travels deep. Solitary and unmoored, the title hero of the book collects bottles that bob up in the sea, then delivers the letters inside. "Most of the time," Michelle Cuevas writes, "they made people quite happy, for a letter can hold the treasure of a clam-hugged pearl." Cuevas's prose is laden with gems like that: gorgeous sentences as precious as the messages themselves. Beauty shines through a fog of sadness: Although the unofficial postman loves his job, he longs for a letter of his own. Just when he seems at his lowest a bottle appears bearing no name, but with a mysterious invitation inside. "I am having a party," the note reads. "Tomorrow, evening tide, at the seashore." A beach party? Who wouldn't be intrigued? The Uncorker brightens at the idea, as do all the other townspeople when he shows them the invitation. His search for the true recipient is not successful, but the party it inspires is. At the appointed hour a clutch of towns-people, including the Uncorker, show up at the beach for music, dancing and snacks. And just like that, the bubble of sorrow breaks in a little ecstatic burst. Erin E. Stead's tender illustrations match the spare, moody story. Colors - the tawny body of a cat, the red of the man's Cousteau-esque knit cap - bloom within Stead's whispery pencil drawings. The shaded backgrounds resemble crayon rubbings, the kind kids use to capture on paper the patterns of leaves or coins or headstones. Under the dark surface of "The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles" the outline of friendship appears and a welcoming community rises. In "Armstrong," Torben Kuhlmann takes a groundbreaking journey from history - the first landing on the moon - and shrinks it to pocket size. Dollhouse devotees know how miniatures mess with your perception of the world, adorably. Finely split loaves of bread and tiny tubes of toothpaste are irresistible. Small pleasures fill the pages of Kuhlmann's picture-book-size graphic novel, starting with the hero, a charismatic mouse. He appears on the first spread, tiny eyes peering through a huge telescope. The budding astronomer fills pages with observations about the phases of the moon. During a secret meeting of all the mice in town at a cheese shop, the furry scientist presents his findings. "The moon is a giant ball of stone!" he announces. The other mice are incredulous. They, of course, believe it is made of cheese. Their doubt spurs the hero to action. Inspired by an experienced aviator mouse at the Smithsonian (the protagonist of Kuhlmann's previous book "Lindbergh"), he makes plans to build his own flying machine and launch himself into space to prove his theory. The detailed, warm-tone illustrations, in pencil and watercolor, document the mouse's progress as he repurposes household objects - an alarm clock, tin foil, a glass ink well - to construct a spacesuit and power his flight. Period details evoke the mid-1950s, and a plot twist suggests that the mouse's work paved the way for the human space program. A guide at the back of the book tells the true story of the history of space travel. Maybe it's the meticulous, photorealistic art (or just my scientific naïveté), but the mouse's experiments read not only as charming fun but also as somehow plausible. His greatest failure - a metal roller skate rocket that sparks a devastating fire - may inspire (safer!) home experiments. The successful moon landing and return are triumphant moments, but it's his tinkerings that provide a whole universe of joy. NICOLE LAMY is a columnist and former books editor for The Boston Globe.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 14, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
A misty, blue-green seawater wash sweeps through many of the pages in this quirky, subtle picture book about a man, the titular uncorker of bottles, who finds ocean-borne flotsam and gives it to its intended recipient. The wet, cool atmosphere, round porthole-like motif, and pages that are never busy serve to accentuate the lonely existence of the sea-rowing hero and his job of utmost importance. Eventually a bottle without an addressee comes his way. No one claims it, though everyone likes how it seems to be inviting them to a party. The uncorker finally decides to meet the writer at the event, only to find all his friends the cake maker, the candy shop owner, the one-man band, among others happily ready to celebrate with him. A gentle story of community, this will leave readers feeling like the uncorker, whose heart was a glass vessel filled to the brim. Caldecott Award winner Stead's drawings are a softly-penciled, perfect fit to Cuevas' tale. A winner for those who like sensitive, quiet reads.--Cruze, Karen Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The eccentric seaman of the title lives alone in a tumbledown beach cottage: "He had no name. He had no friends. He stank of seaweed," writes Cuevas (Confessions of an Imaginary Friend). By bringing the messages he finds floating in bottles on the waves to nearby villagers, his life gains meaning. Some messages are "written by a quill dipped in sadness," while others "made people quite happy, for a letter can hold the treasure of a clam-hugged pearl." One day he uncorks an invitation to a seashore party. No one claims it, but when he ventures shyly to the beach, those he has served serenade him; he even tries dancing. Caldecott Medalist Stead's (A Sick Day for Amos McGee) ethereal spreads give the characters distinctive, captivating personalities. In one, the Uncorker sits at his table in his fisherman's cap, lost in a dream; in another, an older woman closes her eyes, transported with joy by the letter she receives. The underlying message about learning to see the worth of every person is a treasure. Ages 4-8. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Every day at the seashore, a man works at a lonely job: finding glass bottles and traveling great distances to deliver the messages they contain. Then he finds a mysterious party invitation, and while attending the event, he discovers connection and community. The heart-tugging, contemplative story is extended in Stead's dreamy, poignant illustrations, which evoke both the foggy landscape and the vulnerable charm of the characters. A perfect pairing of text and art. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Working as a kind of seaside mail carrier, the Uncorker of Ocean Bottles seeks out all the floating messages in bottles and delivers them to their proper recipients. The wistful Uncorker, shown going to great lengths to deliver the messages, secretly wants to receive a message of his own, but then he remembered that this was about as likely as finding a mermaids toenail on the beach. For he had no name. He had no friends. He stank of seaweed and salt and fishermens feet. When the Uncorker finds a bottle containing a party invitation with no addressee, he checks in with all the locals to no avail. Feeling defeated, he decides to go to the party to apologize to the sender, but when he arrives, he finds everyone else has come too. The Uncorker never finds the bottles sender, but in a roundabout way he has deliveredand receivedthe message perfectly. Steads art, using woodblock prints, oil pastels, and pencil, brings out the dreamlike quality of the story, showing the seaside setting from a variety of vantage points with engaging details to notice and follow. A soft palette of cool greens and warm yellows with pops of red develops the atmosphere, while fine, detailed lines capture the personalities and quirks of the storys characters. The text meanders, and is heavy with metaphors; but the power and importance of communication and connection reverberate throughout the quiet, poignant tale. julie roach (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
