Hearts: Toon Books Level 1 - Hardcover

Rowe, Thereza

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1935179594 ISBN 13: 9781935179597

Publisher: TOON Books, 2014

Synopsis

When Penelope the Fox drops her heart into the sea, she's swept off on a perilous journey dodging sharks and royal cat-guards, until a cartwheeling chicken leads her to the garden of lost things.

About this title

About the Author:

Thereza Rowe is a Brazilian-British artist living in London, England. She says: "My favorite tools are color, shape, and imagination. I daydream about magic clocks, flying fish, enchanted forests—the list goes on. I work alone in the studio, so my cats, Flash and her sister Kitty, have always been my best companions (we talk to each other in five languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and...Meow-purr.) When Flash went to cat's heaven, it was like half of my heart had been ripped out. As I was wallowing in my own misery, suddenly came a wee voice: 'Whatever happens, never lose your heart. Everything is going to be just fine.' That's when I started doodling Penelope—I think of myself as a fox—sitting on a cliff, and I wondered what would happen if I really lost my heart..."

From School Library Journal:

K-Gr 3—This comic, with its limited vocabulary for emergent readers, has a complex, mystical story line, which will also appeal to older children. Penelope, a fox with a broken heart, pursues that heart through water and air. Encountering cat guards at a palace, she leaps on a black horse with a red mane, retrieves her heart, and loses it as a spear carries it away. Then the fox is in a city, sobbing on a park bench before catching a double-decker red bus. A chicken, who has danced on the bus roof, takes her to the garden of lost things, where they find the heart but encounter a monster. Penelope sacrifices her heart to save her new friend. Cut-paper illustrations feature flat colors and clean lines. The visual narrative flows through large and small panels, where speech bubbles and sound effects are used sparingly but to great effect. For instance, "BUM BA DUM...BUM BA DUM" appears in two crescents, emphasizing the heart shape of the palace while also mimicking a beating heart. Youngsters will return to this tale of old and new friendship and loss, finding in Penelope's experiences something that speaks to their own hearts. An author's note discusses the story's origin, while endpapers addressed to parents and teachers give tips for reading comics with kids. An unusual and unique choice for all libraries.—Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN

About this edition

• Publisher: TOON Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1935179594
• ISBN 13: 9781935179597
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Rowe Thereza