Quest (sequel to Journey)
Aaron Becker
ISBN: 9780763665951
Wordless Picture Book
This follow-up to the beautiful Journey has our newly established duo thrust into an adventure when a King pops through a portal (drawn by his own bright orange magical wand) gives them a map, and is dragged back through by soldiers - dropping his wand in the process. The map shows a rainbow of colors building as it passes through different locations, and now we're on a whirlwind quest to retrieve the magic color wands before the evil troops can get to them.
Beautiful and imaginative, and a lovely adventure story in fantastical locales with larger-than-life characters. The ending especially makes me think longingly of how I would read and re-read Narnia as a child, wishing that it were real.
Simply stunning. I truly hope he continues the adventure!
Showing posts with label quest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quest. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Friday, January 3, 2014
Three Tales of My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannet
Three Tales of My Father's Dragon (50th anniversary hardcover edition)
Ruth Stiles Gannet, illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannet
ISBN: 0679887116
Re-Read: December 30, 2013 - January 3, 2014.
Juv: illustrated trio of stories about Elmer Elevator and his adventures with Boris the blue-and-yellow striped baby dragon. The first was written and illustrated as a family project, and published in 1948 to instant acclaim.
I remember these so fondly from childhood. The tangerines, the sticks of chewing gum, the very carefully crafted lists of everything from knapsack provisions to hidden treasure contents. And of course the elderly stray cat, the baby dragon, and Elmer himself, totally willing to rise to any occasion as long as he's had a bit of time to think through a plan.
The first story is the classic, the one most people will remember, where Elmer ventures to Wild Island and braves everything from boars to rhinos to crocodiles with wit, chewing gum, toothpaste, and lollipops, on his mission to rescue a mistreated baby dragon who is chained to a river crossing.
The second story chronicles Elmer and the Baby Dragon's journey to bring Elmer back home in time for his father's birthday, with their stopover at the Island of Escaped Canaries, where King Can the XI, and all the other canaries, are dying (albeit very slowly) of curiousity because the King won't tell his deep family secret about a long-hidden treasure.
Third story has Boris (the baby dragon now has a name) returning home to the Blueland Mountains after schlepping Elmer back home. Unfortunately, Boris arrives just in time to see his whole family (all 15 of them: 6 sisters, 7 brothers, and parents) besieged inside their cave home, trapped by a group of explorers determined to capture them and sell them off to zoos. Back to Elmer for assistance, and the two children sneakily and cleverly defeat the bad guys, leaving no one the wiser.
Delightful memories, delightful stories, and the illustrations are just quirky and sweet enough to fit perfectly.
Ruth Stiles Gannet, illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannet
ISBN: 0679887116
Re-Read: December 30, 2013 - January 3, 2014.
Juv: illustrated trio of stories about Elmer Elevator and his adventures with Boris the blue-and-yellow striped baby dragon. The first was written and illustrated as a family project, and published in 1948 to instant acclaim.
I remember these so fondly from childhood. The tangerines, the sticks of chewing gum, the very carefully crafted lists of everything from knapsack provisions to hidden treasure contents. And of course the elderly stray cat, the baby dragon, and Elmer himself, totally willing to rise to any occasion as long as he's had a bit of time to think through a plan.
The first story is the classic, the one most people will remember, where Elmer ventures to Wild Island and braves everything from boars to rhinos to crocodiles with wit, chewing gum, toothpaste, and lollipops, on his mission to rescue a mistreated baby dragon who is chained to a river crossing.
The second story chronicles Elmer and the Baby Dragon's journey to bring Elmer back home in time for his father's birthday, with their stopover at the Island of Escaped Canaries, where King Can the XI, and all the other canaries, are dying (albeit very slowly) of curiousity because the King won't tell his deep family secret about a long-hidden treasure.
Third story has Boris (the baby dragon now has a name) returning home to the Blueland Mountains after schlepping Elmer back home. Unfortunately, Boris arrives just in time to see his whole family (all 15 of them: 6 sisters, 7 brothers, and parents) besieged inside their cave home, trapped by a group of explorers determined to capture them and sell them off to zoos. Back to Elmer for assistance, and the two children sneakily and cleverly defeat the bad guys, leaving no one the wiser.
Delightful memories, delightful stories, and the illustrations are just quirky and sweet enough to fit perfectly.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Jennifer Trafton, Brett Helquist
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Jennifer Trafton, illus. by Brett Helquist
ISBN: 9780803733756
Read November 15, 2013
Juv: quirky quest adventure.
Very similar in nature and tone to Tuesdays at the Castle, and very nearly as good.
Persimmony
Smudge is the exact opposite of her dutiful drudge of a sister Prunella
(LOVE the names); she is a dreamer, an adventurer, a thinker.
She is, in other words, the perfect person for an
Adventure. But somehow in all of her ten years, she's never had one,
even though her father (missing for nearly those entire ten years) was a
noted adventurer himself. Her mother and sister are decidedly
anti-adventure, but that only spurs Persimmony on to higher reaches of
imagination.
Her imagination fails to match reality when she gets
lost in the woods and overhears the feared underground Leafeaters
plotting against the king. Now she and fellow adventurers Worvil (the
worried) and Theodore (the wise creater of magical pots) have to save
the kingdom, despite the niggling fact that the twelve-year-old king is
more than a little bit of a brat, and perhaps not actually worth saving
after all.
Also, there's a very lovely big giant, who reminded
me strongly and beautifully of the giant Time, fast asleep under Narnia,
waiting for the end of the world.
Great characters, madcap plotting, somewhat uneven pacing.
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