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HOW TO LIVE FOREVER

Name: HOW TO LIVE FOREVER
Author: Colin Thompson
ISBN: 0-679-87898-X

by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Colin Thompson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1996

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As with Thompson's Ruby (1994), this book may have more appeal for literate, pun-loving picture-book collectors than for children, but there are few readers who won't come away impressed with the sheer detail of the illustrations. The book's premise involves a library that is filled with life each night, as the books become small cities and neighborhoods housing small people. A young boy, Peter, and his cat, Brian, leave their home in a cookbook called Quinces to undertake a very long search for a long-missing book entitled How to Live Forever. Finally he comes across two old men who lead him to ``the Ancient Child. He was both young and old, ten and timeless at the same time.'' The Child cautions Peter not to read the book, and, after lengthy contemplation, Peter takes that advice. The Ancient Child approves of Peter's wisdom and leads him back to ``the world.'' The library is full of overstocked shelves and books bearing oddly familiar titles: A Tale of Two Sitars, On the Toad, Withering Tights. Children may not grow wiser for reading this book, but they will have their eyes filled—and thoughts provoked—on every page of amusing details and visual pranks. (Picture book. 7+)

Pub Date: May 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-679-87898-X

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1996

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
WILD STORIES
by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Colin Thompson

- BOOK REVIEW
NORMAN AND BRENDA
by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Amy Lissiat

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BIG LITTLE BOOK OF HAPPY SADNESS
by Colin Thompson & illustrated by Colin Thompson

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FRINDLE

by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Brian Selznick ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1996

With comically realistic black-and-white illustrations by Selznick (The Robot King, 1995, etc.), this is a captivating...

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Nicholas is a bright boy who likes to make trouble at school, creatively.

When he decides to torment his fifth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Granger (who is just as smart as he is), by getting everyone in the class to replace the word "pen'' with "frindle,'' he unleashes a series of events that rapidly spins out of control. If there's any justice in the world, Clements (Temple Cat, 1995, etc.) may have something of a classic on his hands. By turns amusing and adroit, this first novel is also utterly satisfying. The chess-like sparring between the gifted Nicholas and his crafty teacher is enthralling, while Mrs. Granger is that rarest of the breed: a teacher the children fear and complain about for the school year, and love and respect forever after.

With comically realistic black-and-white illustrations by Selznick (The Robot King, 1995, etc.), this is a captivating tale—one to press upon children, and one they'll be passing among themselves. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-689-80669-8

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FRIENDSHIP WAR
by Andrew Clements

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LOSERS CLUB
by Andrew Clements

- BOOK REVIEW
ABOUT AVERAGE
by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Mark Elliott

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CORALINE

by Neil Gaiman ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...

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A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.

Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.

Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)