Standing in for Lincoln Green by David Mackintosh

-
All images from Profusely Illustrated



David Mackintosh's story telling is almost as out of the ordinary as his illustrations. Mackintosh's last book The Frank Show, is a great example of Mackintosh's diverse way of thinking when it comes to picture books. The Frank of the title is the grandfather of the narrator and Frank "doesn't always like the way things are. And he always does things his own way." Frank has a lot of stories he tells, but it never occurs to the narrator to talk about him at family show-and-tell. When he does, the class goes wild for him and Frank stays for lunch! In Mackintosh's new book, Standing in for Lincoln Green, the story turns on a subtlety of character along with some cool kid stuff.
You see, Lincoln Green has a double, "someone who looks just like him. A match. SNAP!" Best of all, his mother can't tell the difference. Lincoln's double, his mirror image, is just that. The only way you can tell that Lincoln's double is standing in is by the reverse "L" on his sweater. Lincoln's double is great at taking care of things that "MUST BE DONE TODAY." You know, things like "tidying and putting away, straightening up and sorting out." In fact, Lincoln "makes the most of every opportunity for You Know Who to help out."




And, while Reverse L does these things, Lincoln Green gets to "grab some shuteye, listen to Sagebrush and Dawgies ont he radio, and mosey over to Brian and Kenny's place to shoot the breeze. There's plenty of time for fizzy sarsaparilla and hot dogs too." 



One day, while You Know Who is "painting the fence because it JUST HAS TO BE DONE TODAY and CANNOT WAIT," And that's when You Know Who meets Billy. They build a tree house and start a club that is "strictly MEMBERS ONLY."


Yep. As the picture above says, "before long, there is big trouble." Lincoln and You Know Who have a parting of the ways. How they patch things up and what happens after are pretty cool. As are Mackintosh's dynamic doubles and vibrant illustrations, a combination of collage, charcoal pencil and a great color palette. Little listeners will love all the toys in Lincoln's room and the things that he gets up to, with or without his permission slip...



Source: Review Copy


Popular posts from this blog

Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala

-
Image
Be a Tree! by Maria Gianferrari illustrated by Felicita Sala Review Copy from Abrams Kids I picture-walked Be a Tree! three times before I actually read the words. Felicita Sala's illustrations for Maria Gianferrari's poetic text are mesmerizingly immersive and richly colorful within a palette of earth tones. Throughout the text, Gianferrari, who shares her inspiration for this book in the author's note ( Peter Wohleben's The Hidden Life of Trees ), gently maintains the human connection to trees and the connections (and communications) trees share with each other.  Be a Tree!  begins exuberantly, inviting the reader to "Be a tree! Stand tall. Stretch your branches to the sun. Let your roots curl, coil in the soil to ground you." From your spine/trunk to your skin/bark and your heart/pith, the words carry you inward and then zoom outward and up to the canopy and ultimately, the forest. "You are one of many trees," and our roots "twine with fung
Read more

Under Earth, Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński, 112 pp, RL: ALL AGES

-
Image
Under Earth , Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel  Mizieliński is their fourth book I have reviewed here and their fourth book with the marvelous Big Picture Press , a publisher of oversized, highly illustrated, gorgeous books who believe that books should be "visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities and nationalities." BPP definitely achieves this with every book they publish and, if you are a book lover, you will want to seek out all their titles. Under Earth , Under Water will appeal to anyone who likes to look inside things and understand how things work. With Under Earth, Under Water , the Mizielińskis, who have an illustration style that is filled with tiny details and a unique palette, take readers on a detailed journey, from the top of the page to the bottom, over and under land and then sea. The endpapers serve as the introduction and table of contents, with images scattered across the spread, page nu
Read more

Reading Levels: A Quick Guide to Determining if a Book Is Right for Your Reader

-
Image
While I wrote an article titled Reading Levels: How I Assign Reading Levels to Books, How the Publishers Do It and How You Can Help Your Reader Find the Right Book at the Right Time that discusses how reading levels are determined by professionals and amateurs like myself, there is more on this subject to discuss. Determining the reading level of a book from the children's section is never easy, mostly because there are several different standardized methods of determining reading levels. Add to this the fact that knowing their children's reading level is most often the only tool a parent is armed with when exploring the bookstore, library, website, etc, and the job becomes even more difficult. While I think that knowing a child's reading level is a very valuable tool if your child is reading below grade level, I think that it is a secondary consideration when finding books for children reading above, especially well above, grade level because, in most cases, content app
Read more