Review by New York Times Review
IT was a day for a parent to remember when the not-quite-2-year-old daughter of the Russian children's poet Kornei Chukovsky toddled up to her father and, looking "mischievous and embarrassed at the same time, as if she were up to some intrigue," blurted out, "Daddy, 'oggie - meow!" Chukovsky's initial response was to correct the little girl, but he caught himself and joined in the game, having grasped that in telling her first joke, his daughter had arrived at a major milestone: the discovery that words were as much her playthings as the dolls and building blocks called toys. Such toddler-like forays into abstract thought set up the preschooler's more established craving for make-believe: stories about talking animals and other imaginary beings, shape-shifting let'spretend games, dress-up. For children advancing through this expansive, fluid time, the sparklingly droll and imaginative drawings of "Animal Masquerade" are made to measure. Marianne Dubuc, a French Canadian artist, has created a delightful cavalcade of birds and beasts, nattily attired as they prepare for a costume party. Nearly all have opted to go as a different animal, and much of the heat generated by these sly, elegant pencil drawings comes from seeing the natural order so freely scrambled. In an effort to pass himself off as a mouse, the zebra dons a cone-shaped mask with whiskers and a curlicue tail. The mouse, meanwhile, perches on stilts for a look at life as a flamingo. When it comes to dreams of living large, it's the ladybug, however, who takes the prize, suiting up as a hippopotamus - albeit a hilariously puny one. Only the platypus chooses not to dress up - because, as the narrator notes deadpan, "he looks like he's already in disguise." The hen, alas, doesn't wear a costume either: "She didn't understand a thing," the narrator reports, perhaps holding back a crocodile tear. "(She isn't very smart.)" Others dress as nursery tale animals, including the elegant swan and her two cygnets, who deftly conceal beaks under pretend snouts in order to become the Three Little Pigs without looking too piggish. The only human in the procession - another nursery tale character, Little Red Riding Hood - has made the most foolish costume selection of all. Clueless as ever, she has disguised herself as a chocolate cake, prompting the narrator to pipe up with alarm: "The bear has quite a sweet tooth. Be careful, Little Red Riding Hood!" Margaret Wise Brown, the author of "Goodnight Moon" and other classics, and Eric Carle, creator of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," are the masters of the non-narrative picture book. Such readalouds are usually centered on a simple, repetitive, gamelike structure that invites young children to chime in collaboratively. Books like theirs, including this one, give the young a springboard for making up their own characters and stories, no instructions necessary. Dubuc may well inspire readers to reach for their crayon boxes. But as her animal friends remind us: to each his own. For some it will be quite enough to watch this adroit artist turn a lion into an elephant and an elephant into a parrot. In "Hide and Seek," the Korean illustrator Il Sung Na ("A Book of Sleep," "Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit") teases out the narrative possibilities in the clever idea that a game long favored by the young and restless at recess is also the chameleon's game in nature. While a cuddly elephant counts out loud from 1 to 10, his equally adorable wildland friends (a giraffe, a rhino and others) scramble for cover. But it's the chameleon - the single poker-face member of the group - we're meant to keep tabs on, the artist having concealed the changeable fellow in every scene. Readers, of course, get to play hideand-seek too. In a few illustrations - each a digitally prepared mix of line drawing and richly hued and textured collage - Na has not made it easy, though we're not quite in "Where's Waldo?" territory either." The elephant's count is a stress-free chance for younger preschoolers to brush up on their numbers, while the images' wildly shifting perspectives make a trip through these pages a kind of visual roller-coaster ride. Collage, including painted and textured cut-paper elements and snippets of photographs, is also the medium used by Marc Brown, of Arthur the Aardvark fame, for "If All the Animals Came Inside," a collaboration with Eric Pinder. Brown's first venture into collage has a carload of enthusiasm behind it, along with this seasoned artist's knack for communicating directly with children via humor. The story, told in nicely turned, high-energy verse, is a child's fantasy of what might happen if a horde of animals were to move in. It's a farcical, made-for-slapstick premise with distant echoes of well-known stories as different as the Yiddish folk tale "It Could Always Be Worse" and Dr. Seuss' "Cat in the Hat." Pinder's narrator, a frisky 6- or 7-year-old, starts out by imagining that he and his siblings like the new setup much more than their parents do. For the children, this is home as a neverending day at a theme park, with no end of novel, raucous adventures. Then, just as reasonably, the boy imagines having had his fill, and wanting to have his old young life back. Childhood, after all, isn't entirely about being imaginative. Doggies sometimes do actually go woof. Leonard S. Marcile is the editor of "The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth" and the - forthcoming "Show Me a Story! Why Picture Bootes Matter."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 3, 2012]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dubuc's collection of colored-pencil drawings of animals dressed up as other animals, a companion in tone and format to 2010's In Front of My House, has two great virtues. The first is that it's blissfully free of moral lessons-it's simply animals on their way to a costume party. The second is that Dubuc's supply of dorky costumes is nearly inexhaustible-there are dozens and dozens of them. When a lion sees an invitation for a masquerade nailed to a tree, he wonders what animal he should dress up as: "As a cat? As a chicken? As a toad?" When the page turns, readers see him in a homemade elephant costume. An actual elephant on the opposite page gives him a sharp look before deciding to go as a parrot, and on it goes ("The parrot went disguised as..."), with each new disguise revealed by a page turn. Dubuc's inventiveness grows ever wackier: "The cow, the hare and the chipmunk went disguised as... A scary three-headed monster. The scary three-headed monster went disguised as... A tiny marmoset." An unassuming gem. Ages 3-7. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-A curious lion discovers an invitation to the animal masquerade tacked to a tree. "Come one, come all," it says. "Disguises are a must!" The lion ponders his costume choices and decides to dress up as an elephant. What disguise does the elephant don? A parrot, that's what, and the parrot goes "disguised as. A turtle." The parade of costumed guests proceeds from there, comprised of familiar animals like a dog, cat, and tiger, as well as a menagerie of more exotic creatures, including an armadillo, millipede, marmoset, and unicorn. Bringing up the rear, the platypus does not wear a costume: "He looks like he's already in disguise." Dubuc interrupts the repetitive flow of the text with well-placed and humorous observations and asides. "The teeny-tiny fish went disguised as. A cat. That makes him a catfish!" Set against a white background, the comical pencil crayon illustrations are brimming with personality, and the childlike charm of the simple drawings contributes to the overall appeal of the book. Wishing that they, too, could attend the masquerade, children will eagerly turn the pages to discover the disguise chosen by their favorite animal. Pair this finely illustrated, amusing picture book with Lindsey Craig's Farmyard Beat (2011) or Judy Sierra's Wild About Books (2004, both Knopf).-Linda L. Walkins, Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Brighton, MA (c) Copyright 2012. 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
For kids who never tire of driving one joke into the ground, this is the perfect book -- and for their adults, there are enough surprises to make that one joke tolerable for repeated readings. There are fifty-three animals headed for a costume party, each one disguised as the next animal in line. Six additional party guests/disguises include Little Red Riding Hood, a three-headed monster, a unicorn, a poppy, and a chocolate cake. Of course, its funny to see a mouse disguised as a flamingo, a flamingo disguised as a giraffe, and a giraffe disguised as a millipede -- suffice it to say that none of the disguises are going to fool anyone -- but a little of this goes a long way. Just when you think youve had enough, the text breaks the pattern: for example, the bear chases Little Red Riding Hood (disguised as a chocolate cake) before he puts on his own snail costume. The dromedary is roundly criticized for disguising himself as a camel (too easy!), and the hen is simply too stupid to participate. The pencil crayon illustrations show each animal before and after they don their disguises, and they all march from left to right across the page, headed to a party thats shown in a final wordless double-page spread. "Welcome to the masquerade!" kathleen t. horning(c) Copyright 2012. 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.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
(Picture book. 2-5)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
