Dan Yaccarino

"I am a story," begins the narrator of this simple but powerful picture-book, going on to enumerate the various ways that stories have been shared and told, from campfire circles to cave paintings, from clay tablets to woodblock prints. Preserved in hieroglyphic inscriptions, ornate tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, and finally, in printed books, stories have been accessed through stage performance, through private book collections, and through public libraries. Though they have been show more censored, banned and burned, stories do not die. No, the narrator assures us, stories live forever...

A lovely tribute to the power of stories, Dan Yaccarino's I Am a Story highlights the various means by which they have been transmitted throughout human history, covering a temporally and culturally diverse range of storytelling methods and mediums. As someone who loves stories of all kinds, someone for whom the library was a home away from home, I thought that the simple narrative here - there is no more than a few words per page - was quite powerful, and found the conclusion immensely moving. Stories do indeed live forever. The artwork, done in India ink on vellum, was absolutely beautiful, with a vivid color palette that highlights the intensity and importance of the storytelling being depicted. I appreciated the inclusion of so many iconic works of art and literature - the cave paintings at Lascaux, cuneiform inscriptions being created in front of the Ziggurat of Ur, Hokusai's The Great Wave of Kanagawa, a Shakespearean play being performed - in the illustrations, and think that watchful readers will enjoy identifying many of them. I also appreciated the diverse range of libraries depicted, from a biblioburro to a Little Free Library. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories about stories, and the history of storytelling. show less

A picture book that deals with a dystopian future! Quite a unique topic for this genre.

Bix lives with her family in a city where the “Eyes” help everyone. The citizens can’t do anything without their approval. Bix however hates being “helped”, so when Bix discovers an underground city by accident while following a rat, she is stunned to discover that there was life before the Eyes. She also finds a magical place filled with reading material she has never seen before: A library with show more books. With the knowledge gained from these, Bix realises that she has to change the way things are going on in her own city.

I have never read a picture book that felt more like a graphic novel. The writing style is meant for kids but this book offers so much for adults as well. The pages are visually stunning! There are subtle clues in the artwork that feel almost Orwellian. The illustrations are simplistic yet impactful. Children will love brave little Bix and her friend, the rat.

One of the main themes in the narrative is the importance of reading. This works even better as the story establishes very clearly how forced reading material never works; reading has to be by choice and with content of the reader’s choice. Perhaps an important point for schools and curricula advisors to understand.

We never know who the Eyes are or how they came into existence. But the whole idea felt allegorical in the way it points a subtle finger at the manipulative activities of administrations and corporations by controlling the lives of the general public and censoring what they consider inappropriate. The content also serves as a metaphor for the smart screen and social media addicted life that we are living. If everything we watch/do is suggested by the infinite scroll feed and we’ve lost the idea of what it means to choose, we don’t think for ourselves but are taking the lazy way out, whether by choice or by compulsion.

The above is, of course, too deep for little readers to understand. And this is a book meant for them after all; the official target age group is ages 4-8. But while they might only understand the content at face value, adults will certainly gain a lot more if they read between the lines while reading this aloud to their kiddos.

In short, it is a quirky dystopian picture book that highlights the power of reading and the importance of thinking for yourself but not just about yourself. Will work better if read with adult guidance as the sub-textual context is more difficult to grasp than the textual content.

4.25 stars.

My thanks to mineditionUS, Astra Publishing House and Edelweiss for the DRC of “City Under the City”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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Picture-book author/artist Dan Yaccarino takes the classic Halloween song as his text in this delightfully spooky board-book, providing wonderfully colorful artwork as an accompaniment. "Five little pumpkins / sitting on a gate. / The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late." So it goes, until the pumpkins eventually take off rolling, adventure-bound...

There really isn't much to Five Little Pumpkins - it's a simple, brief little rhyming song, that features a counting element - but show more Yaccarino's presentation here is lots of fun. I enjoyed his artwork, and think that the youngest children will find this an entertaining (if brief) read-aloud. I had meant to get to this one by Halloween (it is now mid-November), but it is so popular that I had to wait in a very long hold-line in the NYPL system. If that isn't an endorsement, what is...? show less

Summary: Doug the robot is plugged in and downloading information while his parents go to work all day. He learns all sorts of information about the city. Then one day, Doug decides to unplug and go explore the city for himself! He learns so many things about the city that he didn't learn from downloading. He also learns how to play when he makes a new friend in the park, and he helps his friend find his parents. Then Doug heads home and gives his parents a big hug.

Review: This is an show more adorable book that has a few great messages in it. For example, Doug learns a lot by being plugged in, but he also learns a lot when he goes out and experiences things for himself. It seems to me that the author is trying to tell kids that they shouldn't be on their electronics all day; it is important to go outside and explore, and to just "unplug" and play for a while. I think it's also a message for parents: yes, you want your "little robot" to be smart, but they can't learn everything from facts alone. Experiences are just as educational, if not more so, than drilling information. It's also important for kids to play. I also really love the illustrations of the book; they are very cute, and complement the story well. All in all, a wonderful, original book that I highly recommend.

Central Idea of Doug Unplugged: Some things can only be learned by experiencing them. show less