If you love the little kids in your life and you want them to be awesome, then these books need to be in your story-time rotation. If not, you are half-steppin'. That is all.
Wait. That's not all, actually.
I am giddy to report that these Listiak Family favorites are being transformed into TV shows. That does not let you off the hook from reading the actual books. It does, however, add a delightful new dimension to the little worlds these authors have created.
Around the World with Mouk, by Parisian author and illustrator Marc Boutavant, is like your kid's own addition to the coffee table book collection. It's educational eye-candy. Mouk is a cute little bear version of Rick Steves, biking, boating and flying all over the world to try new foods, learn new languages and customs and meet new creatures. He dons a dashiki in Burkina Faso, says "yassou" to an octopus in Hydra and dances with lemurs in Madagascar.
My daughter got this book as a Christmas gift and it eclipsed most every other present. There's so much vibrant color on every inch of the page, dialogue bubbles that appeal to her burgeoning comic book fandom and stickers...glossy, high-quality ones, at that. It takes forever and a day to read it aloud to her, but it's worth it.
Now, Mouk is reportedly being made into several 11-minute mini-episodes to be aired on France Televisions Jeunesse (and, eventually, online). ETA is still tentative, but here's the trailer from the production company, Millimages. Why is it in English — and seemingly featuring the voice of Jane Horrocks, aka, Bubble from AbFab — rather than in French? Who knows? I only know we'll be watching.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Chorion is turning The Octonauts into an animated series. Over the span of four books, these aquatic do-gooders — a polar bear, cat, penguin, dog, bunny, otter and two odd little whatsits — have helped a lonely orphaned sea monster, a dying coral reef, an unswervingly surly fish and their own disgruntled shadows. Meomi, the design duo behind the books (not to mention, the 2010 Winter Olympics mascots!) fill every installment with charming hidden jokes and end-to-end Japanese-inspired cuteness.
The show is supposed to launch in Europe and Australia in 2010, but there's no official word on when we can tune in here in the States. I'm a little worried that the overtly computerized look of the CGI animation format will rob the deep-sea adventurers of their unbelievable kawai-ness. But, my kid's eyes are already so used to watching the likes of Olivia and The Backyardigans, so she'll surely be hooked.
Update: Just came across this! http://www.flickr.com/photos/meomi/4328117731/
No comments:
Post a Comment