Orson Blasts Off! - Softcover

Raul Colon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743478800 ISBN 13: 9780743478809

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Boo, 2004

Synopsis

What's a megabyte-loving kid to do when his computer breaks?BLAST OFF!Join Orson and his sidekick, Weasel, on a hair-raising adventure where they touch the North Pole...watch the eye of a storm wink...and fall through a black hole in outer space.Readers (but maybe not their parents!) will be amazed at what can happen when a creative kid is forced away from his computer screen. Raúl Colón's picture book is filled with delicious word-play and all the fun of a comic book.

About this title

About the Author

Raúl Colón is the acclaimed illustrator of Libba Moore Gray's My Mama Had a Dancing Heart, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; A Weave of Words by Robert D. San Souci; and, most recently, Eileen Spinelli's Rise the Moon, called "beautiful" in a starred review from Booklist. He lives with his family in New City, New York.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A flight not only into imaginary realms but also into the delicious world of language awaits readers in this fanciful journey. Disgruntled about his broken computer, Orson pouts in his room until Weasel, a jack-in-the-box, suggests he look outside. "Outside? I don't do outside," retorts the boy. However, when he discovers that the ground is covered in snow (it's July), he makes snowshoes out of tennis rackets and sets off with Weasel to explore. They are caught in bad weather, and Orson hopes that the "eye" of the storm will see them and save them. When a whale rescues them, the boy can't wait to share this "whale of a tale." Back on land, Orson makes a rocket, blasts off, falls into a "black hole," and is finally jolted awake. Colón's familiar textured illustrations, rendered in watercolor and colored pencils, are large and bordered in white. Some of the paintings cover expansive spreads, such as the image of the boy traversing an Arctic landscape complete with seals sprawled on blue-white ice. Alert children will make connections between the titles of Orson's computer games, the pictures that decorate his room, and his dream adventures. A glossary explains the scientific terms and idiomatic expressions used in the story. Pair this imaginative offering with Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's Favorite Things (Dial, 2003) to lure youngsters away from their computers and into escapades of their own.-Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community College, CT
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Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Boo
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743478800
• ISBN 13: 9780743478809
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32