05/16/2016
Telchin (See a Heart, Share a Heart) takes the interactive format of Hervé Tullet’s Press Here and other similar titles and builds a story around it. The factory of the title is responsible for coloring things black and white. It’s staffed by a zebra, panda, and penguin, naturally, and the rules are strict: “No messes. No colors. No surprises allowed. Ever.” In the bar code room, the animals discover an orange stripe. “How did color get inside our perfectly clean factory?” the penguin cries. “Use your fingers to wipe the color off the bar code,” the panda directs readers. “Go on, put some muscle into it!” With each page turn and reader action, the mess worsens and the color intensifies—until, of course, the animals realize that color is a feature, not a bug. The storytelling drags, and the conclusion is visible from a mile off, but the labels on the factory’s machines provide giggles as a tank of black paint runs into two different sprayers labeled “Dalmatian spots” and “cow spots,” while a wall poster notes that “correct” zebra stripes run vertically, rather than side to side. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)
All readers touring the Black and White Factory must solemnly swear to follow the rules: "No messes. No colors. No surprises allowed. Ever." These mandates are strictly enforced by three tour guides: a penguin, a panda bear, and a zebra. The tour includes products (dominoes and dice), animals (dalmatians, skunks, and Holsteins), and, in an elegant showroom, bar codes. Suddenly, horror! A smudge of orange has crept onto a bar code! Readers are asked to help rub it away, but that only creates a larger stain. Soon other vibrant colors seep in, despite pleas to tilt pages, swirl the book around, and even blow offending hues away. The resulting sloppy but wonderful mess converts our guides, and new rules go into effect: "Messes, Colors, Surprises Allowed Forever!" Stark black-and-white images on gray backgrounds begin the book, making that first streak of orange all the more jarring. Subsequent yellows, reds, purples, and blues explode off pages, relentless in their cheerfulness. A great read-aloud, especially for kids about to undertake art projects.
All readers touring the Black and White Factory must solemnly swear to follow the rules: "No messes. No colors. No surprises allowed. Ever." These mandates are strictly enforced by three tour guides: a penguin, a panda bear, and a zebra. The tour includes products (dominoes and dice), animals (dalmatians, skunks, and Holsteins), and, in an elegant showroom, bar codes. Suddenly, horror! A smudge of orange has crept onto a bar code! Readers are asked to help rub it away, but that only creates a larger stain. Soon other vibrant colors seep in, despite pleas to tilt pages, swirl the book around, and even blow offending hues away. The resulting sloppy but wonderful mess converts our guides, and new rules go into effect: "Messes, Colors, Surprises Allowed Forever!" Stark black-and-white images on gray backgrounds begin the book, making that first streak of orange all the more jarring. Subsequent yellows, reds, purples, and blues explode off pages, relentless in their cheerfulness. A great read-aloud, especially for kids about to undertake art projects.
All readers touring the Black and White Factory must solemnly swear to follow the rules: “No messes. No colors. No surprises allowed. Ever.” These mandates are strictly enforced by three tour guides: a penguin, a panda bear, and a zebra. The tour includes products (dominoes and dice), animals (dalmatians, skunks, and Holsteins), and, in an elegant showroom, bar codes. Suddenly, horror! A smudge of orange has crept onto a bar code! Readers are asked to help rub it away, but that only creates a larger stain. Soon other vibrant colors seep in, despite pleas to tilt pages, swirl the book around, and even blow offending hues away. The resulting sloppy but wonderful mess converts our guides, and new rules go into effect: “Messes, Colors, Surprises Allowed Forever!” Stark black-and-white images on gray backgrounds begin the book, making that first streak of orange all the more jarring. Subsequent yellows, reds, purples, and blues explode off pages, relentless in their cheerfulness. A great read-aloud, especially for kids about to undertake art projects.
06/01/2016
PreS-Gr 2—A panda bear, penguin, and zebra have opened the doors to the top secret Black and White Factory to young readers. No colors are allowed beyond the doors, and the animals do everything they can to keep it that way. Directly speaking to readers, the animal tour guides display products such as chess sets, magic eight balls, dice, and dominoes. When they start showing off the Barcode Room, they suddenly discover to their horror a streak of orange. They ask readers to rub the color off on their shirt sleeves and then to let it drip from the bottom of the page. Through a series of catastrophic mishaps, the animals realize that a splash of color is not necessarily a bad thing and makes life a little bit brighter. The text is conveyed through comic-style speech bubbles, making the interactions between the animals and readers more immediate and personal. Young readers will be familiar with this style of story from such titles as Hervé Tullet's Press Here. The literal splashes of color toward the end of the book will be a welcome sight for young readers who may not be thrilled with the prolonged use of black and white. Children will be laughing all the way to the colorful ending. VERDICT A fun read-aloud that will have kids clamoring for messes and more color. A fine choice for small group and individual sharing.—Christopher Lassen, BookOps: The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library
2016-05-14
A factory producing black-and-white items faces adjustment.A panda, a zebra, and a bespectacled penguin—two wearing ties, one holding a clipboard—welcome readers: "You've just won a tour of the top-secret Black and White Factory." By turning the page, says a tiny-font footnote, readers swear to obey the rules: no messes, no colors, no surprises. This factory makes tuxedos, eight balls, and dice; it's even developing black-and-white-checkered paint and polka-dot paint (older readers will pause, then grin). In the Animal Room, Dalmatians get "splatched" with black; a poster reminds workers of the correct direction of zebra stripes. Unexpectedly, in the Bar Code Room, colors start appearing. The guides beg readers for help—"Use your fingers to wipe the color off the bar code!"; "Rub the colors with your sleeve. Or your elbow. Something"—but change is inevitable. Before the upheaval, Funck's illustrations are entirely black and white (natch), with speech bubbles and savvily expressive eyebrows; however, soft edges and crowded composition belie the text's claim that "Everything is perfectly clean. Everything has its place" and undermine the attempted visual contrast of the color surge. It's conceptually clever enough, but metatexts and reader participation are plentiful these days, and the art can't compare with Hervé Tullet's Mix It Up (2014) or Deborah Freedman's Blue Chicken (2011). (Picture book. 4-7)
