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ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Brooklyn
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COUNTRY: United States
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LAST VOLUME: SATA 384
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1970; married; wife’s name Andromache; children: Galatea.
EDUCATION:Columbia University, B.A., 1992.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and illustrator.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Johnny Marciano is a writer and illustrator. He has created numerous series, including the “Klawde” chapter book series with Emily Chenoweth, the “Witches of Benevento” series with Sophie Blackall, and the “Madeline” series that his grandfather originally created. Marciano has also published middle-grade novels and works of nonfiction for younger readers.
In Bemelmans: The Life and Art of Madeline’s Creator, Marciano offers a biography of his grandfather, Ludwig Bemelmans, the creator of the “Madeline” series of children’s books. The work also compiles samples of Bemelmans’s writings and illustrations and reflections on the nature of writing. A contributor to Horn Book remarked that “Marciano’s attractive portrait of his grandfather is done ‘with loving care.’”
With the picture book Delilah, young Red was unhappy on the farm until he received a lamb named Delilah. They did everything together until the other sheep told Delilah to stop acting so humanlike. Delilah agreed, but eventually her friendship with Red won out. A Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that “delightfully simple pencil-and-gouache illustrations accompany the quiet story of an unlikely friendship. Delilah is sure to become a bedtime favorite.”
In Harold’s Tail, New York City squirrel Harold enjoys the nuts and attention he gets from people. However, a rat convinces him to shave his tail hair off. Harold is then looked down on and finds solace with other rats. Eventually his tail hair grows back, and he learns an important lesson. Writing in School Library Journal, Susan Hepler observed that “frequent black-and-white line drawings move the tale along.”
With There’s a Dolphin in the Grand Canal, young Venetian Luca Buca is bored over the summer and spends his time at St. Mark’s Square staring into the Grand Canal. He spots a dolphin but is the only one who ever notices it. A contributor to Publishers Weekly mentioned that “this dolphin-and-boy adventure makes for an entertaining introduction to Venice.”
In Madeline and the Cats of Rome, Madeline is on a class trip in Rome. When their teacher’s camera is stolen, Madeline and Genevieve chase after the thief. They end up in an old house full of stray cats. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented that the story “doesn’t exactly take the perennial favorite in new directions, but it does seamlessly extend the series.”
With Madeline and the Old House in Paris, Lord Cucuface removes an old telescope from the school’s attic. This upsets an eighteenth-century ghost, who needs the telescope to view the comet that killed him. Madeline and Pepito set out to make things right again. Booklist contributor Connie Fletcher lauded that “fans won’t want to miss a beat.”
In The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield, bad kid Alexander Baddenfield transfers eight of his cats lives to himself. Unfortunately, he gets into so much trouble that he can’t even keep hold of all those extra lives. In a review in School Library Journal, Miriam Lang Budin acknowledged that “it’s great to see Marciano enlarging his scope and good fun to see him partnered with Blackall.”
With The All-Powerful Ring, five young cousins who live in Benevento stand up against the witches in town. Primo gets bad advice on how to banish the witches and comes to believe that a gold ring he finds inside a fish will help him. Writing in School Library Journal, Michele Shaw labelled it “a magnificent introduction to fantasy for younger chapter readers interested in magic but not yet ready for” heavier material.
In Mischief Season, the mysterious Janara witches of Benevento are the focus. They can disguise themselves as anyone and can even become invisible. Twins Rosa and Emilio try to keep Janara out of their house by rubbing oregano around the property. A Kirkus Reviews contributor observed that “witches never actually step into sight, but their offstage presence adds shivery hints of danger to this lightweight opener.”
With Respect Your Ghosts, Sergio is dealing with a grumpy ghost in Benevento named Bis-Bis that lives upstairs in his house. Sergio tries to break a curse that his mother is under by the ghost that will allow her to attend a First of May party freely. Again writing in School Library Journal, Shaw reasoned that “while fans may want to continue with the series, this installment likely won’t entice new readers.”
In Runaway Rosa, young Rosa is annoyed with all the extra chores she has to do after her mother gives birth. She plans to join the boys-only Great Hunt of the Boar to prove she deserves more respect. Her twin, Emilio, is more accepting of the new baby but tries to offer help to Rosa’s efforts in the hunt. A Kirkus Reviews contributor said that it offered “trials, tempests, and triumphs in a still-beguiling Italian country setting.”
With The No-good Nine, Peter Czapylynsky finds a piece of Santa’s Naughty List and contacts other kids on it who also received coal for Christmas. They travel to the North Pole seeking justice. Once there, though, they find that Santa’s toy factory has been taken over and accommodates the American mafia. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described it as being “a tongue-in-cheek romp with currently topical overtones.”
In the picture book How Did Humans Go Extinct?, Plib and his Nøørfbløøks classmates are amused to see at a natural museum how they evolved from frogs. He learns a few different theories as to how humans went extinct millions of years earlier. A Kirkus Reviews contributor likened it to “a tongue-in-cheek invitation to make some choices about how we’d like to croak.”
With The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi, Frankie is upset to have to go to a school for differently bodied kids to accommodate her brother, who has a pair of horns growing from his head. Classmates range from fauns to vampires. Frankie is shocked to learn that she also has abilities similar to the school’s administrators but is not sure who she should trust. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called it “a twisty story with broad reader appeal.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 1, 2013, Connie Fletcher, review of Madeline and the Old House in Paris, p. 100; November 1, 2019, Amanda Blau, review of Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, p. 71.
BookPage, August 1, 2014, Julie Hale, review of Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet, p. 27.
Horn Book, January 1, 2000, review of Bemelmans: The Life and Art of Madeline’s Creator, p. 106; September 1, 2013, Sarah Ellis, review of The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield, p. 105.
Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2002, review of Delilah, p. 660; May 15, 2005, review of There’s a Dolphin in the Grand Canal, p. 592; July 15, 2008, review of Madeline and the Cats of Rome; August 1, 2013, review of Madeline and the Old House in Paris; January 15, 2016, review of The All-powerful Ring; January 1, 2016, review of Mischief Season; January 15, 2017, review of Respect Your Ghosts; June 1, 2017, review of Runaway Rosa; September 1, 2018, review of The No-good Nine; December 1, 2018, review of Klawde; October 15, 2021, review of How Did Humans Go Extinct?; May 15, 2024, review of The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi.
New York Times Book Review, December 5, 1999, Edward Sorel, review of Bemelmans; August 24, 2014, Amir Alexander, review of Whatever Happened to the Metric System?, p. 22L.
Publishers Weekly, April 15, 2002, review of Delilah, p. 63; August 11, 2003, review of Harold’s Tail, p. 280; June 27, 2005, review of There’s a Dolphin in the Grand Canal, p. 62; December 3, 2018, review of Klawde, p. 53; August 23, 2021, review of How Did Humans Go Extinct?, p. 67; April 8, 2024, review of The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi, p. 70.
School Library Journal, November 1, 2003, Susan Hepler, review of Harold’s Tail, p. 108; November 1, 2008, Rachel Kamin, review of Madeline and the Cats of Rome, p. 94; August 1, 2013, Miriam Lang Budin, review of The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield, p. 103; April 1, 2016, Michele Shaw, review of The All-powerful Ring, p. 143; February 1, 2016, Michele Shaw, review of Mischief Season, p. 77; March 1, 2017, Michele Shaw, review of Respect Your Ghosts, p. 120.
ONLINE
Jill Grinberg Literary Management, https://jillgrinbergliterary.com/ (January 3, 2025), author profile.
Nerd Daily, https://thenerddaily.com/ (July 9, 2024), Elise Dumpleton. author interview.
Penguin Random House Canada, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/ (April 4, 2022), author profile.
Reading Rockets, https://www.readingrockets.org/ (April 4, 2022), author interview and author profile.
John Bemelmans Marciano
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Bemelmans Marciano
Born 1970
Nationality American
Education Columbia University (BA)
Occupation writer
Relatives Ludwig Bemelmans (grandfather)
Madeleine Bemelmans (grandmother)
John Bemelmans Marciano (born 1970) is an American children's book author and illustrator.
Life
The grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans, the creator of the children's book series Madeline, has continued the series with three books written and illustrated in his grandfather's style: Madeline and the Cats of Rome, Madeline at the White House and Madeline and the Old House in Paris.[1] He grew up in Three Bridges, New Jersey, and graduated from Columbia University in 1992.[2][3][4]
Johnny Marciano
Johnny Marciano is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator. He is the co-author of the Klawde series of illustrated chapter books with Emily Chenoweth. With Sophie Blackall, he is the co-creator of the Witches of Benevento series. He has published several standalone middle-grade novels, including The Nine Lives of Alexander Baddenfield and The No-Good Nine, and three books of nonfiction for adults: Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words, Toponymity: An Atlas of Words, and Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet. His picture book How Did Humans Go Extinct?, illustrated by Paul Hoppe, was published by Black Sheep/Akashic. His new and forthcoming projects include a middle grade series The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi — the first and second books are releasing in 2024 and 2025, respectively. As John Bemelmans Marciano, he has also authored and illustrated five Madeline books, continuing the series created by his grandfather, Ludwig Bemelmans. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and daughter.
Agent
Jill Grinberg
Q&A: Johnny Marciano, Author of ‘The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi’
Elise Dumpleton·Writers Corner·July 9, 2024·2 min read
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We chat with author Johnny Marciano about The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi, along with writing, book recommendations, and more! PLUS we have an excerpt from the audiobook to share with you at the end of the interview.
Hi, Johnny! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a writer and sometimes illustrator who’s written over thirty books for people of (literally) all ages. I grew up on a farm and am a serious animal lover.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Working on the farm I was the youngest of three brothers so I always did the unskilled labor–weeding, picking up rocks and stick, and raking. Because I was alone (and portable media players hadn’t been invented yet) I passed the time coming up with superhero stories and ideas for comic strips and science fiction novels.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
The first book you ever remember reading: John Henry by Jack Ezra Keats
The one that made you want to become an author: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Metamorphoses by Ovid
Your latest release, The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Funny. Dark. Supernatural. Past lives.
What can readers expect?
To laugh out loud and experience what it would actually be like to have telekinetic powers and the power to remember past lives. And to have no one around you be able to see what is so obvious.
Where did the inspiration for The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi come from?
Ever since reading about the ancient cult-leader Pythagoras in Ovid, I’ve wanted to write a story about people who can remember their past lives. My daughter going to a very culty-seeming Waldorf school when I began writing the book, and I combined it with my own experience as a day student in a boarding school. But the biggest inspiration was to watch my daughter go through the pandemic during middle school, and to see her emerge from a walled-off emo phase where she’d hang out with friends in graveyards and watch Heathers non-stop into a kid who wears t-shirts and cut-off shorts and likes to go outside in the summer and watch Heathers only occasionally.
See also
Q&A: April Genevieve Tucholke, Author of ‘Seven Endless Forests’
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
The arguments! I love when Frankie finally faces off with her super-powered, good-two-shoes brother who has been totally indoctrinated into Dr. Natas’s cult of personality.
What’s next for you?
The most important book of my life–literally. For sixteen years, I’ve been writing and researching the story of how my grandfather Lorenzo was orphaned in an earthquake and tsunami that killed 70,000 people in southern Italy. He and his little brother were pushed into an olive tree; only Lorenzo was able to hang on.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
I’m the most boring person to ask that question to because almost everything I read is for research, which right now means books that are a hundred years old and in Italian, like 1930’s Revolt in Aspromonte by Corrado Alvaro. Good luck finding it; if you can, it’s an utterly brilliant brilliant collection of short stories. That said, I’ll put everything aside the day that William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World drops.
BEMELMANS
The Life and Art of Madeline's Creator.
By John Bemelmans Marciano.
Illustrated. 152 pp. New York:
Viking. $40.
An unapologetic fabulist, Ludwig Bemelmans loved to tell how, quite by chance, he became an artist while working as a busboy at the Ritz-Carlton. It was his custom, he said, to hide behind the palm trees in the hotel's dining room and surreptitiously caricature the guests on the back of menus. When one day the unwitting headwaiter seized two such menus and handed them to the very guests who had served as models, a crisis ensued. Bemelmans was summoned to the office of Albert Keller, who ran the hotel. Later Bemelmans recalled the scene this way:
''Mr. Keller said, 'Gotdem Cheeses Greisd, they are going to sue diss Hotel and it's all your fault.' Mr. Keller never could fire anyone, and he was sorry a moment after he screamed at people. He loved art, and he was a friend of the art dealer Reinhart and of Sir Joseph Duveen; they were both daily guests at the hotel. He told them the story. The two menus with my drawings of Monsieur and Madame Potter Dryspool were in a safe place in his office. He showed them to Mr. Reinhart and to Sir Joseph and asked them, 'Has this boy any talent?' and both said 'Yes.' ''
It's a charming anecdote, but after reading ''Bemelmans: The Life and Art of Madeline's Creator,'' written by his grandson John Bemelmans Marciano, one feels certain that Grandpapa would have become an artist no matter what. Back in Austria, the young Ludwig failed at everything except drawing and painting. Trials at various jobs provided by Uncle Hans, a hotelier, were spectacularly unsuccessful until at last, in 1914, the unruly 16-year-old Ludwig was given two options: either be trained for the merchant marine (where applicants were disciplined with the ends of ropes soaked in tar) or go to America. Easy choice.
Armed with letters of introduction to New York's best hotels, young Bemelmans spent the next 15 years at the Ritz-Carlton. His recollections from this time capture his exuberance at being in a country that allowed him to travel anywhere without worrying about papers and his delight in a lifestyle made possible by his becoming assistant manager of the banquet department. He used one of the ballrooms as his private studio, lived in William Randolph Hearst's suite when Hearst was in California (which was almost always) and hired a violin-playing valet and a Senegalese chauffeur for his Hispano-Suiza. One can readily understand why so many of Bemelmans's stories and paintings revolve around his years at the Ritz.
Life there was perfect, but the years were ticking by. One day, passing one of the many mirrors in the hotel, Bemelmans found himself staring at a face with exploded capillaries from too much drinking and a body beginning to resemble a penguin's. Frightened by what he was becoming, he quit his job to become a full-time artist. A few months later the stock market crashed. By 1932 Bemelmans was broke, divorced and sharing an apartment in Queens with his former valet.
His luck changed slowly. Hapsburg House, an Austrian restaurant, hired him to paint a mural. He sold some illustrations to The Saturday Evening Post. His first children's book was published. He hit the big time in 1937 when his book ''My War With the United States'' proved enormously popular. He was writing and illustrating for The New Yorker, Vogue and Town & Country, and Fortune hired him to paint scenes of strike-torn Minneapolis. Two of these paintings are reproduced in the book, and they reveal that when required, Bemelmans could paint in a somber, naturalistic style.
By 1938 there was enough money for Bemelmans to take his second wife and baby daughter on holiday to France. Bicycling on the Ile d'Yeu, the artist collided with a motor vehicle and ended up in a hospital room with a crack in the ceiling that looked like a rabbit. Next door was a young girl having her appendix removed. Bemelmans returned to New York with a story for a new book. It would incorporate the stories his mother used to tell him about her childhood in a convent school, where the little beds were in two rows and all the girls dressed alike. He called the book ''Madeline,'' a name susceptible to rhyme, and brought it to his editor at Viking. She rejected it. Simon & Schuster did not.
Published in 1939, the book was an immediate success. The celebrity it brought its 41-year-old author apparently imbued him with the belief that he could do anything. And he just about could. In the years that followed, he produced 16 books for adults, including four novels, and 13 more children's books, one of which, ''Madeline's Rescue,'' won a Caldecott Medal in 1954. He painted the murals in what became the Bemelmans Bar of the Carlyle Hotel and produced several covers for The New Yorker. Along the way he decided to see if he could bring the same energy and spontaneity to oil painting as he did to watercolor. In 1957 these oils became part of a major exhibition at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris. It was, of course, a huge success. Bemelmans wisely got all his failures out of the way while he was young, and spent his later years blithely gliding from triumph to triumph.
Perhaps the single exception was his career as a screenwriter for MGM during the early 1940's. Only one of his stories made it to the screen, ''Yolanda and the Thief,'' a decidedly offbeat 1945 musical starring Fred Astaire. Its failure at the box office signaled the end of Bemelmans's sojourn in Hollywood and allowed him to focus on his painting, which matched the effortless quality of Astaire's dancing. Both men worked hard to make their art look easy.
Bemelmans died in 1962, before his grandson was born, but Marciano has employed oft-told stories from his mother's childhood, along with his grandfather's own writings, to good effect. If there were moments when Bemelmans had self-doubts or was less than a loving husband or jolly father, the reader will not find them here. The text is decidedly upbeat, and the art, of course, sublimely so. Besides examples familiar to us all, we find a plethora of his less well-remembered book and magazine illustrations, murals and oils, as well as doodles, sketches and several comic strips. Like a banquet at the old Ritz-Carlton, this book is irresistible.
CAPTION(S):
Photo: Ludwig Bemelmans and his daughter, Barbara, in Paris, 1947. (from ''Bemelmans'')
Drawing (from ''Bemelmans'')
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 1999 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com
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Sorel, Edward. "Illustrated, With an Appendix." The New York Times Book Review, 5 Dec. 1999, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A149667767/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5998beac. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
John Bemelmans Marciano Bemelmans: The Life and Art of Madeline's Creator 160 pp. Viking 10/99 ISBN 0-670-88460-X 40.00
The grandson of Ludwig Bemelmans writes an entirely affectionate biography, "one with obvious and unapologetic bias," of the bon vivant grandfather whose range of talent extended far beyond his signature Madeline books. But Bemelmans would have delighted in this personal account for other reasons. From jacket cover to endpapers to changing typography to alternating page colors, this book has been meticulously and richly designed. It is a coffeetable book in the best sense: leafing through its pages, one catches glimpses of Bemelmans's sparkling spot-art sketches as well as full-page brilliantly realized expressionistic oil paintings of France (mostly of the Paris he loved) and New York. Although Bemelmans saw himself as far less the wordsmith than the artist-illustrator, he produced over forty books and hundreds of magazine pieces. His grandson selects not only from his published written work for adults and children but also from some unpublished essays, including reflections on receiving the 1954 Caldecott Medal and stream-of-consciousness musings on the nature of writing, all of which reveal Bemelmans's wit and charm. The book concludes appropriately with a final section on Madeline. Marciano's attractive portrait of his grandfather is done "with loving care," the very words inscribed on the Madeline sketch that ends this enchanting tale of talent.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2000 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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"Bemelmans: The Life and Art of Madeline's Creator." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 76, no. 1, Jan. 2000, p. 106. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A59021033/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=faefa45a. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
JOHN BEMELMANS MARCIANO. Viking, $15.99 (40p) ISBN 0-670-03523-8
Marciano (Madeline Says Merci) says au revoir to Madeline -- his grandfather's beloved protagonist--and introduces characters of his own in this text-heavy tale. "Unschooled" little lamb Delilah, less expensive than the highly trained sheep at the factory farm, is all that a lonely farmer named Red can afford. But Delilah and Red become fast friends and even workmates: not only can Delilah weed, she can paint barns and gather eggs with her teeth. When Delilah's productivity enables Red to buy a dozen trained sheep, their misanthropic criticism drives a wedge between Delilah and Red ("You lick his head? How unsanitary!"). Eventually, though, Delilah follows her heart and not her herd. Marciano draws faces with the evocative simplicity of his grandfather's draftsmanship. Unfortunately, that restraint does not extend to the storytelling or the fulsome painting style. On one page, Red, wearing a bold plaid shirt, is framed by gray brick walls, a red tile floor, a white board ceiling and a checker- board-roofed ho use in the background; on other spreads, a swarm of patterns and colors compete for readers' attention. Unrelated facing pages compound the busyness (e.g., a river on a left page flows smack into the middle of a garage on the right page). Although nearly upstaged by the visual ruckus, the sweetness of Red and Delilah's friendship quietly shines through. Ages 3-8. (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Delilah. (Picture Books)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 249, no. 15, 15 Apr. 2002, p. 63. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A85072752/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0b8f0e93. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans
Viking (40 pp.)
$15.99
May 2002
ISBN: 0-670-03523-8
Life on the farm was lonely and hard for Red, at least until a sweet lamb named Delilah came along to change everything. Red had raised chickens and cows and even donkeys, but he had no idea what a difference one little sheep could make. All Red could afford was one young and unschooled sheep and she arrived, stepping from the back of the delivery truck on wobbly legs. From the first day, they did everything together. They watered the plants, weeded the garden, collected the eggs, and rode in the tractor. Together they looked forward to the delivery of the dozen new sheep in the spring, but their arrival would change everything for the two friends. The new sheep told Delilah that it was unseemly for a sheep to act in such human ways, and confused, she decided to follow their lead. Months passed, but Delilah was determined to blend in with the rest of the sheep, leaving Red alone once again. Finally, when she could stand it no longer, one lick from her tongue let Red know that they could be friends once more. Delightfully simple pencil-and-gouache illustrations accompany the quiet story of an unlikely friendship. Delilah is sure to become a bedtime favorite. (Picture book 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Delilah. (Children's Books)." Kirkus Reviews, vol. 70, no. 9, 1 May 2002, pp. 660+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A86430257/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=33aaada1. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
JOHN BEMELMANS MARCIANO. Viking, $15.99 (144p) ISBN 0-670-03660-9
Harold, the squirrel narrator of Marciano's (Madeline Says Merci) sluggish story', lives in a small park in Manhattan, where he happily devours the food that visitors throw him. Then he encounters Sidney, a rat, who accuses Harold of putting on airs and tells him, "You ain't no better than me. In fact, the only difference between you and me is that fluffy tail of yours." Reluctantly, Harold agrees to participate in Sidney's "little experiment": to prove that Harold's "precious people friends" only love him because of his bushy tail, the rat shaves off the fur on the squirrel's tail and glues it onto his own. Now that Sidney looks like a squirrel and Harold a rat, the people in the park dote on the former and shun fire latter. Miserable, Harold flees the park and joins up with a pack of rats. Unfortunately, tedious details of their nocturnal activity comprise much of the ensuing narrative. If there is a message here, about the superficial importance attached to appearance or about being true in one's self, it is muddled--and buried under too much trash-scavenging. Final artwork not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2003 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Harold's Tail." Publishers Weekly, vol. 250, no. 32, 11 Aug. 2003, pp. 280+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A106864866/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1248938b. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
illus. by author. 160p. Viking. 2003. Tr $15.99. ISBN 0-670-03660-9. LC number unavailable.
Gr 3-5--Harold, a squirrel, lives in a New York City park, tours the area daily, and samples nuts offered by his human friends. Life is good until a rat suggests that it is only Harold's bushy tail that separates him from the lowly and loathed rat world. To test this hypothesis, Harold agrees to having his tail shaved. The rodents break into a barbershop, the rat glues Harold's tail fur onto his own spindly tail, and the two trade places. Sure enough, Harold is treated cruelly by his former benefactors and chased out of a nearby park by haughty squirrels. He finally finds shelter in a cellar with other outcast but friendly rats. By the story's conclusion, the counterfeit squirrel gets his comeuppance, Harold's fur has grown back, and he's made new friends. Frequent black-and-white line drawings move the tale along. Children may have a difficult time getting by the believability factor and caring about Harold and his predicament. George Selden's Cricket in Times Squaw (Farrar, 19601 tells a better friendship story and E. B. White's Stuart Little (HarperCollins, 1945) is a more compelling adventure.--Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2003 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Hepler, Susan. "Marciano, John Bemelmans. Harold's Tail." School Library Journal, vol. 49, no. 11, Nov. 2003, pp. 108+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A111065525/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=114f7466. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans THERE'S A DOLPHIN IN THE GRAND CANAL Illus. by the author Viking (40 pp.) $15.99 Jun. 1, 2005 ISBN: 0-670-05987-0
Lonely and bored, Luca would love to play outside in the summer sun rather than help run the family cafe in Venice. Grateful to leave early one afternoon, he walks toward the Grand Canal to fred hordes of tourists crowding St. Mark's Square. Missing his wintertime playmates who are on vacation, Luca laments his predicament as he sits along the steps of the canal. Suddenly, he's surprised by the unlikely appearance of a dolphin. Angered and embarrassed when the dolphin hides from his unbelieving and less than amused parents, Luca falls into the canal in a moment of heated ranting, lands on the submerged dolphin's back and takes off on a wild, adventurous romp through the city of waterways as dolphin and boy leap over and under bridges, gondolas, hanging laundry and astonished onlookers. Marciano, grandson of the famous creator of the Madeleine books, has embedded choice Italian phrases within his colorfully painted scenes of Venice, adding to the ambiance and symbolic flavor of the city and its residents. Imaginative and playful. (glossary, author's note) (Picture book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2005 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: There's a Dolphin in the Grand Canal." Kirkus Reviews, vol. 73, no. 10, 15 May 2005, p. 592. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A132907658/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=d22a4788. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
There's a Dolphin in the Grand Canal! JOHN BEMELMANS MARCIANO. Viking, $15.99 (40p) ISBN 0-670-05987-0
Marciano's (Delilah) tale begins with a dry guidebook tone, before introducing Luca Buca, living in Venice with his parents who run a cafe ("Poor kid--look at him, so bored and lonely, stuck in here all summer with his parents"). Each afternoon, Luca passes through St. Mark's Square to mope by the Grand Canal. The scenery is Marciano's strong suit, with meticulously painted brickwork and golden touches on the Doges' Palace rooftops. One afternoon, a dolphin splashes Luca and performs "a reverse backflip with a corkscrew finish." But no one else notices: the tourists bury their noses in guidebooks and Luca's father condescendingly lectures the boy on fish varieties found in the Grand Canal (none of which is dolphin). When Luca drags his skeptical parents to the Canal ("scusi-scusi-scusi"), no dolphin appears ("I'm sure it was a very nice dolphin too, dear," his mother says). The minute they turn away, the dolphin arrives, boards Luca on its back, "and they took off ... zip!" Marciano's human characterizations are uneven (at times Luca looks 10, other times 25), but he does treat readers to an aesthetically pleasing tour of the city, via Luca's wild ride, through the arches of the bridge at Rialto, past laundry lines on a quaint back street and (literally) over the Bridge of Sighs. Italian words pepper the tale, as do tourists' comments in various tongues. This dolphin-and-boy adventure makes for an entertaining introduction to Venice. Ages 4-up. (June)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2005 PWxyz, LLC
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"There's a Dolphin in the Grand Canal!" Publishers Weekly, vol. 252, no. 26, 27 June 2005, p. 62. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A133676368/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=88692617. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
MARCIANO, John Bemelmans. Madeline and the Cats of Rome. illus. by author. nnpaged. Viking. 2008. RTE $17.99. ISBN 978-0-670-06297-3. LC number unavailable.
K-Gr 2--In the first all-new Madeline book in almost 50 years, Ludwig Bemelmans's grandson tries his hand at re-creating the magic and charm of the boisterous little French girl. In this escapade, Miss Clavel and the girls escape the cold, rainy weather in Paris to enjoy spring in Rome. But when their camera is stolen, Madeline races off to catch the culprit. She tracks her down and discovers one of the hiding places of the famed eats of Rome. When the thief, Caterina, lures Madeline into one of her schemes, both girls are taken to the police station. Madeline is reunited with her teacher and classmates and decides to help Caterina stage a "rescue operation" for the eats. After successfully finding homes for all of the felines, Miss Clavel, Madeline, and the girls bid a fond "Ciao!" to Italy. Marciano includes a list of Roman sites found in the illustrations. Missing, however, is a much-needed author's note explaining the history and significance of the more than 300,000 stray eats that live among the city's monuments and rains. The artwork isn't as sharp and polished as in the original rifles, the plot gets muddled, and the rhythm and rhyme of the text are slightly forced and stilted. Nonetheless, libraries with a large Madeline fan base may want to include this new adventure alongside the originals.--Rachel Kamin, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, Highland Park, IL
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2008 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Kamin, Rachel. "Marciano, John Bemelmans. Madeline and the Cats of Rome." School Library Journal, vol. 54, no. 11, Nov. 2008, p. 94. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A189870600/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=63167e86. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans MADELINE AND THE CATS OF ROME Viking (Children's) $17.99 Sep. 1, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-670-06297-3
Having inched his way into his grandfather's spotlight with a Madeline board book and other tie-ins, Marciano tries out a full-dress solo performance here--and makes the grade nicely. Looking and sounding just like the classic episodes, this all-original outing takes Madeline and her schoolmates on a rhymed trip to sunny Rome where, after visiting the Sistine Chapel and other familiar sights, she and Genevieve hare off after a young thief who snatches Miss Clavel's camera. After a brisk chase they reclaim the camera, but find themselves (briefly) under arrest and also saddled with an entire old houseful of stray cats. Though an unexplained general costume change partway through breaks the visual continuity, Marciano sketches children, tourists and their surroundings with that old, loose, familiar vim--in (as further homage) alternate sets of full-color scenes and pages in yellow and black. Like the newer Amelia Bedelias, this doesn't exactly take the perennial favorite in new directions, but it does seamlessly extend the series. (Picture book. 6-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2008 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: MADELINE AND THE CATS OF ROME." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2008, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A182056963/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b52db3f6. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans MADELINE AND THE OLD HOUSE IN PARIS Viking (Children's Picture Books) $17.99 10, 8 ISBN: 978-0-670-78485-1
Much-beloved and as spirited as ever, Madeline is back in Paris to help out a miserable ghost and create a scare of her own intended for the school's headmaster. Marciano (Madeline at the White House, 2011) continues his series of sequels to his grandfather's original works. With gouache, pen and ink, he closely duplicates the style of the classic titles and even includes a number of pages executed in black on yellow. The rhythm of the rhyming text is also reminiscent, as when the action begins with an unexpected visitor: "One afternoon at a quarter past five, / a long black car pulled into the drive." It's Lord Cucuface, who conducts an inspection of the premises and discovers a "most / splendid telescope," which he promptly takes with him. But in the middle of that night, Madeline hears moaning and groaning. It's the ghost of an astronomer, who needs the telescope back in time to observe a comet he's been waiting 221 years to see so that he can rest in peace. The kids help Madeline and Pepito pull off a clever trick that involves a convincing costume and a bit of dramatic theater. Of course Lord Cucuface is scared silly, so that by the final page, "a girl and a boy and a ghost were peeping / at a rare and brilliant sight, / a comet streaking through the night." Encore, Madeline! (Picture book. 4-8)
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: MADELINE AND THE OLD HOUSE IN PARIS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2013, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A338102011/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3e2ceb6a. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Madeline and the Old House in Paris. By John Bemelmans Marciano. Illus. by the author, 2013.48p. Viking, $17.99 (9780670784851). PreS--Gr. 2.
Marciano, the grandson of Madeline's creator, gets the look and feel of the Madeline books exactly right in his fourth addition to Madeline's adventures. The lives of Miss Clavel and her 12 Parisian orphan-girl charges, who walk, eat, and sleep "in two straight lines," are disrupted when the mean-spirited Lord Cucuface makes a surprise inspection visit. Against Miss Clavel's protests, he enters the supposedly haunted attic, where he finds an antique telescope, which he instantly claims. Madeline awakes in the middle of the night to hear ghastly moans from the attic, and states, "Something is not right." Madeline and the girls soon discover a bewigged eighteenth-century ghost who says he can never rest until he can view the return of the comet that caused his death centuries ago. The action hurtles along, aided by Madeline's madcap friend Pepito, ending in a very funny revenge on the headmaster and a wonderful resolution to the ghost story. Fans won't want to miss a beat.--Connie Fletcher
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
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Fletcher, Connie. "Madeline and the Old House in Paris." Booklist, vol. 110, no. 3, 1 Oct. 2013, pp. 100+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A348978939/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c0bde4a7. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield
by John Bemelmans Marciano; illus. by Sophie Blackall
Intermediate Viking 140 pp.
10/13 978-0-670-01406-4 $16.99 g
Why is the world so messed up? And, would it be fun to be immortal? From these two story-rich questions Marciano invents Alexander Baddenfield. Alexander comes from a long line of miscreants ("To say that the Baddenfield family had a checkered past is to insult innocent board games everywhere"). The Baddenfields of yore are behind such evils as colonialism, slavery, cigarettes, and gas-guzzlers. His ancestors died young, but not Alexander: thanks to a stem-cell transplant from a cat, he has nine lives, giving him the opportunity to jump off the Empire State Building, get a python for a pet, try his hand at bullfighting, and touch the third rail, all with impunity. As in all cautionary tales, the magic gift has its problems, and Marciano stays true to the tradition by providing a redemption-free ending. The plot here is discursive and slow to get rolling (the setup for the transplant takes one third of the book), but the ride is fun for a sophisticated reader, with puns, anagrams, and good-natured satirical potshots at food allergies, New Yorkers, overprotected children, and cell phone apps. Blackall's illustrations are droll and cheerily gruesome.
Most of the books are recommended; all of them are subject to the qualifications in the reviews. g indicates that the book was read in galley or page proof. The publisher's price is the suggested retail price and does not indicate a possible discount to libraries. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion. * indicates a book that the editors believe to be an outstanding example of its genre, of books of this particular publishing season, or of the author's body of work. For a complete key to the review abbreviations as well as for bios of our reviewers, please visit hbook.com/horn-book-magazine.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Ellis, Sarah. "The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 89, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 2013, pp. 105+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A345774205/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8691e23f. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
MARCIANO, John Bemelmans. The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield. illus. by Sophie Blackall. 144p. Viking. Oct. 2013. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-670-01406-4. LC 2012048448.
Gr 4-6--As Marciano is descended from Ludwig Bemelmans, so might Alexander Baddenfield be descended from Madeline's nemesis-turned-friend Pepito "The Bad Hat." Alexander, however, never sees the error of his ways. He is thoroughly bad for his entire nine lives--a circumstance he engineers by arranging for the transplantation of eight lives from his cat to himself. The rashness of youth combines with the recklessness of a person with many lives to lose as Alexander experiments wildly with the third rail of the subway system, the murky waters and treacherous currents of the Hudson River, an Icarus-style flight launched from the Empire State Building, an extremely brief stint as a matador, and more. When Alexander nears his final demise, he becomes overly cautious, immuring himself in his castle and avoiding any possible brushes with mortality. Naturally, that doesn't work, and the world is left a better place. The amusing, if macabre, premise is abetted by Blackall's slightly creepy gray and black-toned illustrations, in which hourglasses, the Grim Reaper, and funeral ribbons are recurring motifs. It's great to see Marciano enlarging his scope and good fun to see him partnered with Blackall.--Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Budin, Miriam Lang. "Marciano, John Bemelmans. The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield." School Library Journal, vol. 59, no. 8, Aug. 2013, pp. 103+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A339017243/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=72517646. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE METRIC SYSTEM?
By John Bemelmans Marciano
Bloomsbury
$26, 384 pages
ISBN 9781608194759
eBook available
HISTORY
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Ah, the metric system--the logical way of meting out the world that confounds most Americans. Readers who have failed to crack its code will find comfort in John Bemelmans Marciano's Whatever Happened to the Metric System? How America Kept Its Feet, an intriguing look at why the system failed to take hold here.
The metric system is a surprisingly inflammatory topic--an issue with political, social and financial implications that has generated plenty of heat across the centuries. Marciano traces the system back to Revolutionary-era France, when a restructuring of measurements resulted in metrics as we know them today.
Cutting through the confusion and antipathy that have long surrounded the issue in America, Marciano provides a clear-eyed account of how Americans hung onto their inches, ounces and pounds.
In 1875, Congress signed the Treaty of the Meter, which led to the establishment of the International Bureau ofWeights and Measures, the agency that oversees the metric system, but Americans still had the option of using customary English units of measurement. A century later, when President Gerald Ford sanctioned the Metric Conversion Act, transition to meters and kilos seemed like a sure thing. But America stepped back from the brink again when the act met its end during the budget cuts of the early 1980s.
Today, the United States is one of only three nations in the world that have not adopted the metric system. Yet Marciano makes important points about America's adherence to tradition. "To be for a metric America is to be for a global monoculture," he says. Through the use of its customary system, America is "preserving ways of thinking that were once common to all humanity."
Marciano's narrative provides an overview of measurement in all its manifold forms, including currency, clock and calendar.
Each chapter is broken up into easy-to-absorb sections that bring fluidity and logic to a complex tale. Weighty stuff, but the gifted Marciano makes light work of it.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 BookPage
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Hale, Julie. "Whatever Happened to the Metric System?" BookPage, Aug. 2014, p. 27. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A418603955/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=895c6bd9. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE METRIC SYSTEM?
How America Kept Its Feet
By John Bemelmans Marciano
Illustrated. 310 pp. Bloomsbury. $26.
In the 1970s, children across America were learning the metric system at school, gas stations were charging by the liter, freeway signs in some states gave distances in kilometers, and American metrication seemed all but inevitable. But Dean Krakel, director of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma, saw things differently: ''Metric is definitely Communist,'' he solemnly said. ''One monetary system, one language, one weight and measurement system, one world -- all Communist.'' Bob Greene, syndicated columnist and founder of the WAM! (We Ain't Metric) organization, agreed. It was all an Arab plot ''with some Frenchies and Limeys thrown in,'' he wrote.
Krakel and Greene might sound to us like forerunners of the Tea Party, but in the 1970s meter-bashing was not limited to right-wing conservatives. Stewart Brand, publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog, advised that the proper response to the meter was to ''bitch, boycott and foment,'' and New York's cultural elite danced at the anti-metric ''Foot Ball.'' Assailed from both right and left, the United States Metric Board gave up the fight and died a quiet death in 1982.
In his entertaining and enormously informative new book, ''Whatever Happened to the Metric System?,'' John Bemelmans Marciano tells the story of the rise and fall of metric America. With a keen ear for anecdotes and a sharp eye for human motivations, Marciano brings to life the fight over the meter, its champions and its enemies. The 1970s bookend his narrative, but the reader soon finds the struggle lasted not a decade but centuries. And in what was to me the book's greatest revelation, the meter -- that alleged vehicle of international Communism -- turns out to be American through and through.
The father of American metrication was none other than Thomas Jefferson, who in the 1780s turned his attention to replacing the menagerie of doubloons, pistoles and Spanish dollars then in use in the states. Jefferson proposed minting a new dollar, but whereas the European coins were divided into halves, eighths, sixteenths, etc., the American coin would be divided into tenths, hundredths and thousandths. When Jefferson's plan was approved by Congress, the United States became the first country to adopt the decimal system for its currency.
That money is related to measurement might seem counterintuitive today. But as Marciano points out, until very recently the value of coins was ultimately dependent on their weight in gold or silver, which means the divisions of a currency imply a division of weight. And so, when Jefferson arrived in Paris as a diplomat in 1784, he joined forces with French luminaries in promoting a complete reform of weights and measures. Their opportunity came only a few years later, when at the height of the French Revolution its leaders cast away all traditional measures and replaced them with the new meter, kilogram and ¡liter. Jefferson, who had returned home in 1789, was convinced the new system would be promptly adopted in America.
It didn't turn out that way. As France descended into terror and war, the metric system became entangled in a worldwide struggle over its legacy. To its supporters it stood for reason and democracy; to its detractors, godlessness and the guillotine. It was not until the aftermath of World War II, when new global institutions were established and a host of new nations adopted the meter, that its place as the near-¡universal measure was secured.
In America, however, repeated efforts at metrication, from Jefferson to Jimmy Carter, were scuttled by a formidable combination of hostility and indifference. According to Marciano the debate is now over, since the digital revolution has made conversion instantaneous and a change of system pointless. Still, as his book beautifully shows, clashes over the meter were more often about ideology, not utility. And so, as long as the struggle continues over reason and faith, universalism and tradition, I wouldn't count the meter out.
CAPTION(S):
PHOTO: American metrication, 1979. (PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 The New York Times Company
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Alexander, Amir. "Not Giving an Inch." The New York Times Book Review, 24 Aug. 2014, p. 22(L). Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A379674274/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=32371691. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans THE ALL-POWERFUL RING Viking (Children's Fiction) $13.99 4, 12 ISBN: 978-0-451-47180-2
Primo is sure that the gold ring he finds in a fish's stomach must have magical powers. But what are they? This is the second in a series featuring five young cousins living in an Italian town renowned for its witches. It opens with a letter from a local demon about the town's (purported) supernatural residents, closes with a more expansive "Witchonary," and in between chronicles Primo's efforts to prove his courage and his newly found ring's magic. But nothing goes right: his prank-loving cousin Rosa refuses to take his claims seriously; an all-night vigil is wasted when the witchy, mischief-making Janara fail to appear; and his quest is trumped by cousin Maria Beppina, who is (supposedly) captured by the scary Clopper after she borrows the ring and reappears with a hair-raising tale. Ultimately an encounter, or a near-encounter anyway, with a child-snatching Manalonga draws praise from Primo's peers, and all race away to dance the tarantella at a village party. Blackall places her gesticulating, expressive figures, clad in antique country dress, between and beside passages of narrative; they have a timeless look in keeping with the episode's folkloric air. As in co-published opener Mischief Season, magic weaves its way through both setting and events without quite becoming explicit. A fresh and pleasing Continental sojourn for chapter-book readers. (map, historical note) (Fantasy. 8-10)
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: THE ALL-POWERFUL RING." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2016, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A541695595/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6d6a65d9. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
MARCIANO, John Bemelmans. The All-Powerful Ring, illus. by Sophie Blackall. 144p. (The Witches of Benevento: Bk. 2). Viking. Apr. 2016. Tr $13.99. ISBN 9780451471802.
Gr 2-5--Like other offerings in the series, this book revolves around five young cousins living in the Italian town of Benevento, notorious for its mischievous witches. Primo decides he needs to stand up to the Manalonga, who are the most feared of witches, known for lurking under bridges or in wells and snatching up children. Primo's plan involves using augurs, which are ways to read the future, but they have to slaughter an animal and read its guts to do so. There are tales of Primo's uncle, Beppe Stfortunato, being taken by the Manalonga, and when Primo and his cousins get unsatisfactory advice from Zia Pia, the fortune-teller, Primo steps up to the quest with false bravado. When he discovers a gold ring inside a fish, Primo is sure he has found the power needed to defeat the Manalonga. Marciano has delivered a delicious blend of otherworldly adventure, sure to be a hit with young readers. Blackall's distinctive and expressive drawings complement the gentle magical tale. VERDICT A magnificent introduction to fantasy for younger chapter readers interested in magic but not yet ready for more mature fantasies.--Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Shaw, Michele. "Marciano, John Bemelmans. The All-Powerful Ring." School Library Journal, vol. 62, no. 4, Apr. 2016, p. 143. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A448686294/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3a12de8f. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
MARCIANO, John Bemelmans. The Witches of Benevento; Mischief Season. illus. by Sophie Blackall. 128p. (The Witches of Benevento: Bk. 1). Viking. Apr. 2016. Tr $13.99. ISBN 9780451471819.
Gr 2-4--In this, the first of a planned four-book collaboration between Marciano and Blackall, readers are introduced to Benevento, an ancient Italian town known for its witches. These aren't your run-of-the-mill witches; rather, they are spirits, fairies, ghosts, and demons, and lesser-known varieties including Manalonga, Clopper, and Janara. It is the Janara witches who come to Benevento, and they are impossible to spot because they can be anyone (even a neighbor or a relative). They transform at night by rubbing magical oil on themselves, which gives them powers including flight and weather transformation. Most of all, though, the Janara are mischief-makers, causing mayhem wherever they go. Five cousins, Primo, Emilio, Rosa, Maria Beppina, and Sergio, are hot on the trail of the Janara after Rosa is framed for masses of wicked mischief including the barn roof being torn off and all of the hay being tossed out of the barn. Twins Rosa and Emilio enlist the help of their cousins, and visit ornery fortune-teller and healer Zia Pia in hopes of finding a solution to their Janara puzzle. Blackall's distinctive illustrations are a charming blend of expressive drawings complemented with shades of blue. Marciano ends the story with a mysterious plot twist begging to be solved. VERDICT Magical spells and amusing characters with distinctive personalities, coupled with an engaging story with a twist, will captivate readers and leave them clamoring for future stories centered on the other consuls.--Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA
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Shaw, Michele. "Marciano, John Bemelmans. The Witches of Benevento; Mischief Season." School Library Journal, vol. 62, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 77+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A442780554/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5ba7548c. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans MISCHIEF SEASON Viking (Children's Fiction) $13.99 4, 12 ISBN: 978-0-451-47181-9
Of all the magical residents in an Italian town long renowned for its various sorts of witches, the mischievous Janara may be the most mysterious--and troublesome. By day disguised as neighbors or even relatives, the Janara become invisible with a spell (plus dabs of magic oil in the armpits) at night and set out to play such tricks as (ugh) feeding through a straw inserted up a sleeper's nose and down into his or her stomach. Thus, when bossy young Rosa wakes one morning itchy of schnoz and starving, it's time for her and her considerably less obnoxious twin, Emilio, to seek help. But all their efforts only result in further and more widespread "mischiefs," until town idler Amerigo Pegleg reluctantly admits that oregano is like catnip to the Janara (and he should know). Shrugging off Rosa's ill-tempered skepticism, Emilio rubs fistfuls of the herb around house and yard, and peace is soon restored. Loosely based on folklore and decorated with Blackall's two-color drawings of elfin figures in country dress on nearly every page, the comical tale kicks off a projected series set in the picturesque town. Appendices on spell casting and on Benevento's witchly history (not seen) will cap each episode. Volume 2, The All-Powerful Ring, publishes simultaneously. Witches never actually step into sight, but their offstage presence adds shivery hints of danger to this lightweight opener. (town map) (Fantasy. 8-10)
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: MISCHIEF SEASON." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2016, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A438646727/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=832b3140. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans RESPECT YOUR GHOSTS Viking (Children's Fiction) $13.99 4, 18 ISBN: 978-0-451-47183-3
Nine-year-old Sergio may not be the brightest bulb in town, but he shines after helping to settle a 137-year-old feud between two ghosts in Marciano's latest visit to Benevento.Alas! When poor Sergio manages to lose a basket of "caca diapers" he had been sent down to the river to clean, his angry mother exiles him to the attic to stay with Bis-Bis, the surly spirit of his five-times-great grampa "who died in the earthquake of 1688, but not quite enough." Can Sergio escape the gassy ghost ("Skeevo!") and regain his mom's good graces by reuniting her with her beloved cousin Zia Carozzo, long separated by an old quarrel between Bis-Bis and the Carozzo family's house spirit? Though one young resident's anachronistic "Mushroom hunting is the dorkiest, lamest thing ever!" rather spoils the period flavor, this latest episode in an interwoven series set in 1820s Benevento, historically renowned for its witches and magical creatures, winningly blends broad comedy with eerie encounters. Blackall festoons the small-format pages with expressive two-color drawings of the light-skinned townsfolk, along with an occasional rubbery-looking specter, and Marciano closes with notes on the town's history and supernatural residents. A droll picture of life yesteryear in a--seemingly--ordinary Italian town. (map, "witchonary") (Historical fantasy. 8-10)
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: RESPECT YOUR GHOSTS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2017, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A477242443/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=51b802a2. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
MARCIANO, John Bemelmans. Respect Your Ghost! illus. by Sophie Blackall. 144p. (The Witches of Benevento: Bk. 4). ebook available. Viking. Apr. 2017. Tr $13.99. ISBN 9780451471833.
Gr 2-5--Sergio joins his cousins in the fourth installment of the series revolving around their lives in the Italian town of Benevento, still rife with mischievous witches and ghosts. Sergio has a grumpy ghost, Bis-Bis, living upstairs in his house, and he has to cater to Bis-Bis's every whim, such as his daily eggs requirement. When Sergio upsets his mom and has to move in with the ghost, he tries to find a way out of his predicament. Sergio's mom has always wanted to attend a First of May party, which has been impossible because of a 137-year-old ghost vendetta. With the help of his cousins, Sergio hopes to break the curse and maybe trap the hidden Janara (mischief maker) along the way. Readers should be familiar with the prior three titles to keep facts and characters straight. Blackall's distinctive drawings are sweet and expressive. VERDICT While fans may want to continue with the series, this installment likely won't entice new readers, as it has lost some of its magic.--Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Shaw, Michele. "Marciano, John Bemelmans. Respect Your Ghost!" School Library Journal, vol. 63, no. 3, Mar. 2017, p. 120. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A484628417/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b4a1011e. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans RUNAWAY ROSA Viking (Children's Fiction) $13.99 8, 21 ISBN: 978-0-425-29151-1
Gender expectations get a tweak with the arrival of a new little sibling for twins Emilio and Rosa.
Following a loud refusal to join the women who have gathered to help Momma through labor, Rosa's life takes such a turn for the worse--diapers, housework, cooking, ugh--that at last she furiously runs off to live in the trees (till dinnertime). She creates an even bigger stir by insisting on signing up for the formerly boys-only Great Hunt of the Boar, promising her shocked father she'll return to her despised domestic duties if she loses. (She doesn't lose.) Meanwhile, Emilio is thrilled by the new arrival ("Is it a boy or a girl?" "Why don't you look for yourself?"). He just feigns reluctance to take over child care duties after his sister threatens to disclose his secret reading, and he avoids signing up for the hunt himself but coaches Rosa on the best techniques for success. As in earlier episodes, on nearly every page Blackall deftly captures the characters of fiery Rosa, gentle Emilio, and the rest of Benevento's olive-skinned country cast in her two-color sketches. Also as in most of the earlier volumes, the local supernatural residents remain present but just out of sight...though a closing revelation hints that that may not always be the case.
Trials, tempests, and triumphs in a still-beguiling Italian country setting. (historical and cultural afterwords) (Fantasy. 8-10)
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: RUNAWAY ROSA." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2018, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A540723371/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9a2cebf9. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, John Bemelmans THE NO-GOOD NINE Viking (Children's Fiction) $17.99 10, 16 ISBN: 978-1-101-99784-0
Nine (or thereabouts) Depression-era Naughty Listers set out to petition Santa for toys rather than coal in their stockings.
It all begins when the "Know-It-All," aka Peter Czapylynsky, finds a partially burned page from Santa's Naughty List in his fireplace on Christmas morning and, outraged to have gotten only coal, reaches out to others on the list with a scheme to see justice done. According to archetypically unreliable narrator Luigi Curidi, a self-described "poor and dirty Italian kid," the quarrelsome questers (almost never exactly nine in number) trade in their given names for appropriate nicknames such as the "Hooligan" and the "Thief"--Luigi opts for the "Liar." Bankrolled by the rich but thoroughly spoiled "Brat," they travel north from Pittsburgh by train, dog sled, and finally mail boat--arriving after many adventures at a certain unmapped island in Baffin Bay to discover that the latest in a line of elected Santas has autocratically turned the Toy Factory into a smoke-belching sweatshop. Worse lies in store, though, as first a devastating fire and then the arrival of devious bootlegger Mummy Rummy spell a future producing not toys but liquor and firearms for the American mob. Can the Nine (or so) find a way to beat the baddies, unionize the elvish workers, and save Christmas? With help from a lively opening rogues' gallery by Mock, Marciano creates a cast of ragamuffins diverse in race, gender, ethnic background, social class, and temperament.
A tongue-in-cheek romp with currently topical overtones. (Fantasy. 11-13)
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"Marciano, John Bemelmans: THE NO-GOOD NINE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2018, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A552175257/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5b15bf9e. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, Johnny KLAWDE Penguin Workshop (Children's Fiction) $14.99 2, 26 ISBN: 978-1-5247-8720-2
Wyss-Kuzz was such an evil warlord his feline people rose up and dusted off an ancient punishment: exile via teleporter to the most awful place in the cosmos, Earth.
Raj Bannerjee, soon-to-be sixth-grader, has been exiled from his beloved Brooklyn to Elba, Oregon, which is creepily full of nature. Unbeknownst to the Bannerjees, an alien has been banished to their front yard. Wyss-Kuzz, terrified of the liquid falling from the sky, seeks shelter in one of the fortresses inhabited by furless ogres who are so stupid they can't understand his feline language (or recognize his vast superiority). Raj has always wanted a cat and promises to go to survival camp if he can keep Klawde, as his clueless father's renamed the alien warlord. Can Raj survive survival camp? Can Wyss-Kuzz bend these disgusting primitives to his will and get them to build him a transporter so he can exact revenge on his home planet? Earth cats are imbeciles, but a mind-meld can conquer the language barrier with humans...but that may cause more troubles than it solves. Wyss-Kuzz and Raj trade off narration duties in Marciano and Chenoweth's first of four hissterical interstellar adventures. Wyss-Kuzz's constant misinterpretation of things earthly and Raj's goofy new friends and enemies at camp will hook even reluctant readers. Mommaerts's two-color, cartoon illustrations add more laughs as well as such background details as the Banerjees' Ganesha to confirm their South Asian heritage. Sequel Enemies publishes simultaneously.
Fun for feline fanatics and light sci-fi lovers. (Science fiction. 7-11)
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"Marciano, Johnny: KLAWDE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2018, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A563598599/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f0f4fb8f. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, 1-2. By Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth. Read by Oliver Wyman and Vikas Adam. 2019. 7hr. Listening Library, CD, $60 (9781984845481). Gr. 2-5.
Fanfare music reminiscent of an epic movie opens the story. Perspective shifts between a boy named Raj and the evil, exiled alien whom Raj believes to be his new pet cat, Klawde. Wyman, as Klawde, captures the regal air of a cat used to ruling an entire planet with an iron paw, his disgust with humans' primitive technology--they lack even simple intergalactic teleporters!--and his shock at how Earth cats have regressed to be mere pets. Wyman masterfully integrates Klawde's pleased purrs when his schemes are working and his hisses of frustration when thwarted. In bearing, Klawde is a cat to rival Star Wars Emperor Palpatine. Adam skillfully portrays Raj's uncertainties about being a city kid cast into a new suburban town and, worse, still forced to attend an outdoor survival camp. Raj's nervous nature is a great foil to Klawde's certainty of his own greatness. Klawde's voicing is satisfyingly over-the-top, amplifying the humor, while Raj's everyday-kid voice keeps the listener grounded. Humorous, clever writing is made even funnier by top-notch narration. Give to those who have enjoyed Wedgie & Gizmo (2017) or the Jedi Academy series.--Amanda Blau
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
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Blau, Amanda. "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, 1-2." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 5, 1 Nov. 2019, p. 71. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A608072934/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1f0beff1. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
How Did Humans Go Extinct?
Johnny Marciano, illus. by Paul Hoppe. Black Sheep, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-61775-927-7
Ten billion years after humans disappeared from Earth, young Plib finds them immensely appealing. A member of now dominant species the N00rfbl00ks, purportedly descended from frogs, Plib loves the book How Do Humans Say Goodnight?, and "his favorite stuffie was a human named Frank," writes Marciano (the Witches of Benevento series). A field trip to the human exhibit at the Natural History Museum is right up Plib's alley ("Humans came out of their mothers ALREADY ALIVE!"). Hoppe's (Good Vibrations) fine-lined, futuristic pages take on a surfeit of sly detail, showing people sporting a mishmash of costumes--a feathered and furred figure wears a jacket, kilt, swim flipper, and ski. But Plib is deeply unsettled by the mystery of human extinction, and his mother's initial explanations--climate change, war, greed-seem to upset him even more. Mom's own belief, however, is that humans actually "learned how to survive in peace and harmony" until a giant asteroid crashed into Earth and wiped them out--an answer that gives Plib the closure he needs to fall asleep. Readers will undoubtedly see the parallels with their own dinosaur fandom, but it's a toss-up as to whether the ending will be a source of giggles or hit a little too close to home. Ages 3-7. (Oct.)
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"How Did Humans Go Extinct?" Publishers Weekly, vol. 268, no. 34, 23 Aug. 2021, p. 67. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A673950334/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=03e19b58. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, Johnny HOW DID HUMANS GO EXTINCT? Black Sheep/Akashic (Children's None) $16.95 10, 19 ISBN: 978-1-61775-927-7
There are different theories.
On a trip to the natural history museum in the year 10,002,021 C.E., young Plib enjoys the exhibit showing how he and his fellow Nøørfbløøks evolved from frogs--but what really floats his lily pad is the exhibit on humans, his favorite kind of extinct creature. That night at bedtime he asks his mom what happened 10 million years ago, and she explains that they either mucked up the planet's climate, exterminated themselves because they "likedto hate each other," greedily split into haves and have-nots and stopped taking care of one another or maybe learned at last to live in harmony until an asteroid hit the Earth and wiped them out. In any case, only scattered evidence of what they were like remains, and Hoppe illustrates this cogent recitation with (pre)historical scenes of trollish, speculatively reconstructed figures sporting fur, feathers, or fins along with hilariously mismatched bits of clothing from various eras, goofy teeth, and skin tones running to blues and purples. Plib likes the harmony-followed-by-asteroid scenario enough to go to sleep with a smile on his bulbous green face. Today's readers may feel likewise, though even younger ones will leap to the understanding that if we want to make it happen we'd better hop to it.
A tongue-in-cheek invitation to make some choices about how we'd like to croak. (Picture book. 6-8)
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"Marciano, Johnny: HOW DID HUMANS GO EXTINCT?" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A678748426/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=151709ab. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi (The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi #1)
Johnny Marciano, illus. by Ashley Mackenzie.
Penguin Workshop, $17.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-593-66094-2
Thirteen-year-old Frankie Caridi has always been stuck in the shadow of her 12-year-old brother Lucie. Due to "hyperosteogenesis, a genetic abnormality," Lucie was born with superhuman strength and striking horns, and he charms everyone he meets with his easygoing positivity and academic talent. When forced to attend the isolated Pythagorean Institute, a boarding school in Proserpina, Pa., home to a large number of students with similar genetic conditions, Frankie flounders as Lucie thrives. While struggling to acclimate, Frankie becomes suspicious of the supposed humanitarian mission of the institute and suspects that enigmatic principal Dr. Rodolpho Natas is building a cult. Though her initial inquiries bear little fruit, Frankie finds unexpected allies in quirky teacher sisters with a grudge against the principal. As Frankie delves deeper into the mysteries surrounding the institute, she's plagued by strange dreams that feel like memories, forcing her to confront the reality that she may be less "normal" than she thought. Marciano (How Did Humans Go Extinct?) invokes the well-worn trope of a disaffected, outcast teenage girl discovering hidden talents; plentiful references to Roman mythology and Latin throughout add grit, and Mackenzie's evocative b&w art opens each chapter. Frankie and Lucie cue as white. Ages 10--up. (July)
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"The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi (The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi #1)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 14, 8 Apr. 2024, pp. 70+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799269973/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f55ca381. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.
Marciano, Johnny THE 66TH REBIRTH OF FRANKIE CARIDI Penguin Workshop (Children's None) $17.99 7, 9 ISBN: 9780593660942
Real and otherworldly dramas collide.
Frankie isn't happy: Leaving her friends in New Jersey behind to start eighth grade at the Pythagorean Institute, a special boarding school that used to be a "weird 1970s mind expansion cult," is hard enough. "Average" Frankie resents having to go there with little brother Lucie, whom everyone sees as "exceptional," both because he has actual horns--a rare genetic condition makes his fast-growing bones dense; they even extend outside his body--and because he's extremely smart and charismatic. Plus, the school bans cellphones. The Institute is surprising in many ways, not least because of the "differently bodied" students like Lucie, who are called deems, although there are other norms like Frankie. Between her Latin teacher (who's a faun), her roommate (who's a vampire), and the evil spirits haunting the grounds, this school is clearly extraordinary. What Frankie wasn't expecting was to learn that she has powers that are inextricably linked to the Institute and those who run it. What that means--and whom Frankie should trust--remains to be seen. The third-person narration can feel like a rote play-by-play account, but the characters and plot are interesting and develop quickly, and the cliffhanger ending will leave readers hungry for more. The straightforward writing and the story's brevity enhance accessibility. Frankie is cued white; there's racial diversity among the supporting cast.
A twisty story with broad reader appeal. (Paranormal. 10-14)
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"Marciano, Johnny: THE 66TH REBIRTH OF FRANKIE CARIDI." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A793536990/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=997351ca. Accessed 28 Oct. 2024.