Thursday, July 28, 2011

"Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude" by Kevin O'Malley, Illustrated by Kevin O'Malley, Carol Heyer, and Scott Goto


Image Courtesy of: http://www.toysandbooks.com/Summer_2005_Newsletter/OnceCoolMotorcycleDude_h400.jpg
Bibliographic Citation
Title: Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude
Author: Kevin O’Malley
Illustrator: Kevin O’Malley & Carol Heyer, Scott Goto
Year of Publication: 2005
Publisher City: New York
Publisher: Walker & Company
ISBN: 0802789498
Media Used for Artwork: Pen, Ink, Digital Color, Acrylic Paint, Oil Paint on paper

Awards
·         Buckeye Children's Book Award Winner
·         Colorado Children's Book Award Winner
·         Louisiana Young Reader's Choice Award Winner
·         Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award Nominee
·         Nevada Young Reader's Award Winner

Annotation
For a project two students must recite their favorite fairytale, but they can’t agree on which story so begin to tell their own.  Even then the boy and girl fight over the type of story they want to tell.

Personal Reaction
                Older readers are at a point where they don’t want to hear the same story over and over again.  Reinventing the classic tale interests them more.  This picture book by O’Malley does that.  Not only does it take a classic fairy tale and turn it on its head, it also takes stories that are typically seen as for boys or girls and combines them together.  This story has to be appreciated for the fact that it is showing readers that it is okay to like any genre of literature or what is considered meant for only boys or for only girls.
                The variety of the illustration styles work quite well with the different styles of stories being told by the characters.  The girl’s illustrations are elegant and fanciful, while the boy’s illustrations are similar to a graphic novel with a lot of explosions and fire.  I enjoy the fact that the characters are so different from the rest of the illustrations.  Using digital art for the portrayal of the students makes it clear that they are the narrators and are separate from the story being told.

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