Feb. 6th, 2008
"Thanks, ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
clamnebula!"
Feb. 6th, 2008 02:04 pmYour package arrived yesterday... Audrey brought the box in just before we went out, and after I got back, I was focused on watching the election returns...
Just opened it up a bit ago -- now, I have antidote to the wasteland that is now broadcast television.
:-)
Just opened it up a bit ago -- now, I have antidote to the wasteland that is now broadcast television.
:-)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret:
Feb. 6th, 2008 08:04 pmEEEEeeeeeEEEEeee!!!
(how many book illustrations have you come across that you need a moment to realize what you are looking at, and once you do, they make you gasp in surprise? That happened a couple of times, with this book)
::Deep breath::
I'm not sure if I'm even able to review this book without spoilering it to smithereens, but, um:
EEEEeeeeeEEEEeee!!!
A paragraph bit from the acknowledgements, at the end:
"The automaton came to the museum 1n 1928, after being damaged in a fire. It had stopped working, but once it was refurbished, it astonished its new owners by drawing four different pictures and writing three different poems. And [spoiler deleted], the automaton at the Franklin Institute, once it was fixed, signed the name of its maker, Maillardet, thus solving the mystery of its provenance.
To see the Maillardet automaton and learn more about it, you can go to: http://www.fi.edu/pieces/knox/automaton/"
Um, yeah. That's just part of the inspiration for this book... also: living inside walls, and clocks, and ... yeah.
:::Happy sigh:::
You know, this book is lacking the gold foil copy of the Caldecott award stuck on its cover, and this volume was nowhere near the display of award winners, and had no attention drawn to it at all. I'm wondering if the people in the bookstore were even aware that it had won the Caldecott.... I mean, come on! I thought the whole reason to give these awards to books is so that parents and teachers would know they existed, and buy them for their kids (students). Isn't that what bookstores want, too?
I did say that Barnes and Nobles were Dens of Evilness in Bookseller Form, didn't I?
ETA: Damn! I went back to the website above, to rewatch the YouTube video, and it's no longer available! I wonder why it was taken down... It looks like a video produced by the Franklin Institute, and it was on the FI website... so I doubt it was there unauthorized... Hmmm... You can still see the still pictures, though.
(how many book illustrations have you come across that you need a moment to realize what you are looking at, and once you do, they make you gasp in surprise? That happened a couple of times, with this book)
::Deep breath::
I'm not sure if I'm even able to review this book without spoilering it to smithereens, but, um:
EEEEeeeeeEEEEeee!!!
A paragraph bit from the acknowledgements, at the end:
"The automaton came to the museum 1n 1928, after being damaged in a fire. It had stopped working, but once it was refurbished, it astonished its new owners by drawing four different pictures and writing three different poems. And [spoiler deleted], the automaton at the Franklin Institute, once it was fixed, signed the name of its maker, Maillardet, thus solving the mystery of its provenance.
To see the Maillardet automaton and learn more about it, you can go to: http://www.fi.edu/pieces/knox/automaton/"
Um, yeah. That's just part of the inspiration for this book... also: living inside walls, and clocks, and ... yeah.
:::Happy sigh:::
You know, this book is lacking the gold foil copy of the Caldecott award stuck on its cover, and this volume was nowhere near the display of award winners, and had no attention drawn to it at all. I'm wondering if the people in the bookstore were even aware that it had won the Caldecott.... I mean, come on! I thought the whole reason to give these awards to books is so that parents and teachers would know they existed, and buy them for their kids (students). Isn't that what bookstores want, too?
I did say that Barnes and Nobles were Dens of Evilness in Bookseller Form, didn't I?
ETA: Damn! I went back to the website above, to rewatch the YouTube video, and it's no longer available! I wonder why it was taken down... It looks like a video produced by the Franklin Institute, and it was on the FI website... so I doubt it was there unauthorized... Hmmm... You can still see the still pictures, though.