Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Sy's his name, and fruit's his game. His customers are appreciative that he knows nectarines will cure a headache and bananas will banish bunions. Then something odd happens. Sy looks in the mirror and seems pale. Well, make that very pale. Uh, invisible. Life, which was good, now turns bad. No one wants to buy his fruit, so Sy travels the world, and though he is most certainly incognito, hints of his existence surface. Soon everyone is talking about him, and then they blame him for every accident, every tragedy. Can discovery, a trial, and jail time be far behind? No. Eventually, Sy is freed and gets the job he is eminently suited for magician's assistant. When a trick gone wrong leads to a flurry of tossed fruit, the healing power of pulp and juice is proven. Those long familiar with Yorinks' work will recognize Sy as a cousin of Irv Irving, who loses his head in It Happened in Pinsk (1983), but this reiteration of a man on the brink has its own hysterical moments. Yorinks employs a narrative tone that's a cross between an old Jewish comedian and The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, which adds to the deadpan humor, while Cushman's splendid watercolor art becomes ever more clever the closer you look. A fine bit of funnery for kids and the parents who read to them.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Unlike the H.G. Wells original, Yorinks's (Homework) whimsical riff on the harassed Wells character is largely played for laughs. Kindly Sy Kravitz, a fruit seller, wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably invisible. "He was shunned. Ignored. Alone and invisible, his gentle spirit finally snapped." He begins a life of petty crime, and when his secret is discovered, he is blamed worldwide for things he didn't do and is eventually captured, jailed, and "ultimately forgotten." Yorinks's droll text and Cushman's (Tyrannosaurus Math) emotive watercolor cartoons enhance the story's absurd comedy. Cushman solves the problem of how to illustrate an invisible protagonist by portraying Sy with his face wrapped like a mummy or dressed as a disembodied robe or prisoner in stripes. During a later stint as a magician's assistant, a grumpy audience begins pelting Sy with fruit, at which point "it happened. A miracle. Covered in fruit cocktail, Sy Kravitz regain[s] his color" and becomes visible again. An eccentric moral ("Time, and fruit, heals all wounds") does little to explicate the theme (or point) of the story. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-Sy Kravitz is a fruit seller in Brooklyn who becomes invisible. He wraps himself in bandages, but customers grow suspicious: "If there's nothing wrong with his fruit, why is he so ashamed to show his face?" Shunned by the community, he becomes angry and vows to "show them." His misdeeds include sneaking into movie theaters and riding the train for free. He becomes the scapegoat for "every tragedy in life," is wrongfully convicted, and is thrown into jail. After serving his time he works as a magician's assistant. Heckling dieters throw fruit and he suddenly regains his appearance. Cushman's watercolor cartoons show clever disguises to mask Sy's invisibility: scuba diver, brain surgeon, pizza chef. This H. G. Wells take-off includes humorous quips, such as, "Time, and fruit, heals all wounds," but has limited child appeal.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright 2010. 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
Is there any child who hasn't imagined the uses of invisibility? Here, that scenario is nicely spiced with the unexpected. Folks flock to Sy Kravitz's store for delicious fruit -- plus expert advice: 'A headache? Take a nectarine' or 'One banana and your feet will thank you.' When Sy fades away one morning, it's not a wish realized but an inexplicable inconvenience. Though doctors are unfazed by a presence revealed only by his garments, Sy's customers are put off by his swathed, mummy-like head. Flummoxed, Sy exploits his odd state by going rogue, only to be imprisoned for snitching a donut -- the powdered sugar sticks to his face. His sentence served, he becomes a magician's assistant, with the happy result that a stage mishap followed by fruit hurled by an angry crowd causesWell, you can imagine. The appealing premise, fey logic, and offbeat hero are much abetted by Cushman's illustrations, which recall David Small in tall-tale mode (though Cushman's art is more lighthearted). With deft drafting and a bright palette keyed to Sy's beloved fruit, he creates an array of nonplussed characters along with a few who fail, comically, to be astonished. Good fun, plus a subtle subtext about another sort of invisibility: the universal experience of being ignored. JOANNA RUDGE LONG (c) Copyright 2010. 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.
