Review by New York Times Review
East Side, West Side, all around the town, a little boy searches the streets of New York for his friendly fire-breathing dragon. Drawn in bold, caricature-style pen and ink, Light's illustrations are dizzy with detail, architectural and otherwise, all the better to disguise the dragon, who lurks in every picture. Half the fun is in finding him, but there's also some counting to be done, of water towers, subway cars and other city sights. HOW TO LOSE A LEMUR Written and illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon. 32 pp. Sterling. $14.95. (Picture book; ages 2 to 6) "Everyone knows that once a lemur takes a liking to you, there is not much that can be done about it," Preston-Gannon begins her winning tale of lopsided friendship. Nearby, a lemur with an oddly intent expression offers a flower to a little boy, who regards him warily. Soon that one lemur is joined by a whole troop, and they find ingenious ways to follow the boy across lakes, deserts, mountains - even through the skies. When at last the boy returns home, he's made friends despite himself. STELLA'S STARLINER Written and illustrated by Rosemary Wells. 32 pp. Candlewick. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 6) In the opening spread of this gorgeous, good-hearted book, Wells shows a little fox named Stella standing with a proud smile in front of a shiny Airstream trailer. "It was as silver as a comet in the sky. It was called the Starliner." In Stella's eyes, everything about her home is perfect, until nasty weasels call it a "tin can." But a trailer's indisputable advantage is mobility, so Stella's family take flight through the starry night and park in a sunnier place where new friends see things Stella's way. WINSTON & GEORGE By John Miller. Illustrated by Giuliano Cucco. 56 pp. Enchanted Lion. $17.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) Ever had a friend everyone said you shouldn't trust? Winston, a big, "very very patient" crocodile, puts up with a lot of silly pranks from his pal George, a little crocodile bird, but when one joke goes too far it isn't clear if either will see the light of day again. The intense, saturated colors of Cucco's pen-and-ink pictures look so fresh it's hard to believe they lay forgotten for a half-century, winding up in an attic. Publication brings them - as well as, at last, the mismatched friends - a happy ending. THE ADVENTURES OF BEEKLE The Unimaginary Friend. Written and illustrated by Dan Santat. 40 pp. Little, Brown. $17. (Picture book; ages 3 to 6) How does an imaginary friend feel before he's been imagined? In Santat's sweet, mind-bending gumdrop of a tale, Beekle lives on a rainbow-hued island, "hoping for his turn to be picked by a child." Eventually, like Max in "Where the Wild Things Are," he takes to the seas and soon lands in the real world - which looks a lot like Manhattan. Though this island seems awfully drab, Beekle and his friend find each other at last. She's everything he's ever dreamed of, and the feeling is mutual. ONLINE A slide show of this week's illustrated books at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 6, 2014]
Review by Booklist Review
A dragon is on the loose in New York City, but rather than inciting terror, he provides an opportunity for a gentle quest and counting game. Light (Zephyr Takes Flight, 2012) takes readers on a tour of lower Manhattan with a little boy as he travels from spot to spot looking for his escaped pet. Hiding behind a potted plant and going nose-to-nose with a poodle, gobbling down a hot dog, or making his way through the water system, the dragon eludes the boy all the way from 1 dragon to 20 red lanterns in Chinatown. Drawn with a fountain pen, Light's distinctive illustrations have a bold, thick line and deep texture and are highlighted with dashes of color to help identify objects to count. His cityscapes capture the bustle of New York City, and children will have as much fun exploring the city as they do trying to spot the sneaky dragon hidden within. A rough map of the city serves as the book's endpapers, so little eyes can follow along.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Expressive line drawings fill the pages of this counting book, a love letter to the streets and sights of Manhattan. The boy who narrates is small figure with a round head, but his dragon is a magnificent creature that loops its elaborately scaled body and sinuous neck around and through New York's architectural landmarks, always just out of the boy's field of vision. On each page, everyday city objects are picked out in one color on the otherwise black-and-white pages ("11 manhole covers"; "12 pigeons"). Vehicles, street food, and even under-the-street wiring get attention as the boy searches on. Readers can spot the dragon sailing the river like the Loch Ness monster ("It's possible he went for a swim") or posing fountainlike in the middle of the zoo's monkey cage. One neighborhood in Lower Manhattan lends itself especially well to dragon habitat; there the boy's search ends. Light's (Zephyr Takes Flight) creation will appeal to Manhattanites and those outside the borough alike. Details missed the first time through the book will bring readers back for more. Ages 2-5. Agent: Linda Pratt, Wernick & Pratt. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-This unique counting book will be a hit with children who love looking at finely detailed illustrations and searching for hidden items on each page. A boy has lost his dragon and asks the building doorman if he has seen him. The spread shows one large green dragon in a fancy apartment building. When the doorman answers, "No," the boy goes looking for him all throughout the city. "Maybe he got hungry and stopped for a hot dog," he thinks. But even as he buys a hot dog of his own, he doesn't see the dragon hiding and eating one himself. That's two. He passes three purple busses, but doesn't see the dragon. Four blue sailboats raise the possibility that he went for a swim in the river. And so it goes, up to 20, when the boy finds him "right where I left him," hiding on the roof near 20 red paper lanterns. The book is illustrated in pen and ink in a picture-book style that is reminiscent of the late 1950s to early 1960s. The drawings are produced in black ink only, except for the highlighted object on each page. A map on the endpapers outlines the route the boy takes throughout the city. All in all, an excellent offering.-Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2014. 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
Have you seen my dragon? No? I will look for him." So begins a boy's citywide search for his creature. This book is a multipurpose visual feast: readers are afforded the opportunity to find the dragon hidden in bustling, expertly detailed pen-and-ink scenes while counting objects at each stop (e.g., twelve pigeons on a rooftop), which appear in color on otherwise black-and-white spreads. (c) Copyright 2014. 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
A little boy has misplaced his pet dragon and must search for him all over the city, counting up from one dragon to 20 lanterns. Black line pen-and-ink drawings in finely patterned detail depict a vital, lively New York City of the imagination. Colored-pencil images on each double-page spread are reserved for the city-specific items to be counted along the way, and the endpapers depict a loosely interpreted map indicating the sites. Readers first meet the adventurous dragon in all his greenness, as he is, of course, the representative of the number one. As he moves about the city, the unnamed little boy hypothesizes the locations at which he might find his pet. He is quite accurate in his guesses, but the dragon seems to be a master at blending in to the background, mysteriously having lost his color. But there are things to count, like two pink hot dogs in brown buns, three purple buses and four blue sailboats on the river, all the way up to 20 red lanterns in Chinatown, where he finally spots the dragon, "[r]ight where I left him." If this is an attempt at reminding young readers that the dragon is imaginary, it's a bit of an anticlimax, and it takes a great deal of the fun out of the previous travels around the city. But the visual appeal overcomes it all. Lots for young readers to see and count. (Picture book. 2-5)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
