Avalanche

Rosen, Michael J., Butler, David, ill.,

ISBN 10: 0439056373 / ISBN 13: 9780439056373

Published by Scholastic Inc./New York, 1998, 1998

About this Item

soft cover, unpaged, 9 x 9 inches, first Scholastic printing January 1999, very good + book condition, no dust jacket, juvenile picture book,

Seller Inventory # M0958

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Avalanche
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc./New York, 1998
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0439056373
• ISBN 13: 9780439056373
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis

A riot of color and motion, "Avalanche" is also a clever and utterly unexpected alphabet book. Full color.

From Publishers Weekly

Rosen rolls through the alphabet and a gargantuan snowball rolls over the earth in this wintry fantasy. Each spread highlights several letters of the alphabet within key words: "Once there was an Avalanche/ that started out quite small./ It all began when Bobby tossed/ a harmless-looking ball." The snowball grows to Goliath proportions as it engulfs a garbage truck, a jet, mountains and the entire world. Ultimately the icy sphere encompasses the Universe and, in a concluding sci-fi twist, reverses its course to deposit every planet, city and house back in its proper place. Rosen, whose book is more about a rolling ball than a downhill snow-slide, tailors his word choice to accommodate the alphabetical scheme. Consequently, the sentences feel stilted: when the orb returns from outer space, "Zippy, Bobby's dog, he caught it!/ Gadzooks! What a throw!" In his first picture-book effort, Butler applies hand-painted details to cut-up photos of snow, sky and knit cloth. His early images present a convincing cluster of flying flakes, studded with pine trees and fences. But when he tries to imply infinite time and space, all embedded in ice, the result is a pedestrian picture of clocks and question marks. This snowball gets too big for its makers to handle. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.