[image] “De kleine co-Pilote” (The little co-pilot) by Jantina Papercamp
The second issue of PromiseShore’s bookazine, Zizzle, was released in March, 2[image] “De kleine co-Pilote” (The little co-pilot) by Jantina Papercamp
The second issue of PromiseShore’s bookazine, Zizzle, was released in March, 2019. The first had been published in October, 2018. (My review of that one can be found here.) In a quick reprise, issue #1 introduced a hard-cover-format short story collection aimed at young readers. The physical presentation was fabulous, with great attention paid to the look and feel of the book, as well as to the content. The stories were all good, with some that were wonderful. Question is whether the magic of issue 1 is repeated in issue #2. I am happy to report that publisher Yuetting Cindy Lam has gotten it right twice.
[image] Yuetting Cindy Lam - image from PromiseShore
The quality of the selected writings is top-tier. As with the first issue, there are ten stories, with three degrees of difficulty, Easy, Less Easy, and Not Easy. Each story has its level indicated by a book-stack icon in yellow, green, or red, in the Table of Contents and at the beginning of each story. (Personally, I would have gone with green for Easy and yellow for Less Easy), but no biggie. The stories are all under 1200 words, brief enough to hold the attention of young readers. As in the first, the second has an appendix in which the authors tell about the inspiration for their stories, and another in which the authors reveal their favorite books and authors when they were kids. Each story is introduced with a photo of the author as a child. The background color of all the story pages varies from tale to tale. The gorgeous artwork is by provided this time by Dutch artist Jantina Peperkamp.
[image] Jantina Pepercamp - image from her FB pages
The stories are diverse. In Child of the Short Spark, one day, out of the blue, a boy becomes a prodigy, on piano and whatever else he wants. The newfound gift presents some unexpected challenges to him. In Familiar a young student, believing her teacher be an actual witch, tries to gift her with an appropriate companion. Nuclear Missiles Are Coming Our Way takes on a kid’s embarrassment at his physically dimorphic parents. Imagination takes charge in No-School Day, when a daydream supersedes reality. Some pre-ad jealousy and mean-girl hostility arises in Sticks and Stones, matching up with clothing color and designs to reflect the tension between beauty and awfulness. Good Biscuits, Wonderful Tea shows how even the mature can learn from the young. My personal favorite was The Gift of Everness, a beautiful, moving fable about the externalities of growing old. My War Effort offers a touching portrait of a time (WW II) and place (Brooklyn) in which women come together to support each other and their men at war. Sealed offers a multi-generational look at the appeal of one’s home town. And finally, I’m Not Going to School tells of a child whose ADHD results in an excess of dust-ups at school, and a strong desire to stay away. It is a fair bet that you will find something in this collection that you will love. It is the intent of the publisher that these stories be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Can’t speak for the kids, but I know one adult who liked them a lot.
[image] Lesley Dahl -image from her GR page
The stories offer a respectable gender range, with three male, four female, and three generic child leads. No ethnicities are specified, but some are identifiable. I expect the folks at PromiseShore struggled with how to cope with offering a fair ethnic balance. It looks like they ducked the issue by going mostly generic. The same cannot be said of the artwork. There are five different beautiful paintings in the book, variations of one image appearing on both the front and back covers and inside as well. They are all lovely, but offer a singular look, white, very, very white. A bit of diversity would have been welcome. I personally would prefer art work that illustrates the stories, but it looks like they will be sticking with non-story-specific images.
[image] Girl in swimsuit - by Jantina Papercamp
The book includes a smattering of encouraging quotes from the likes of Sylvia Plath, Alice Munro, Dr Seuss, Picasso, Emily Dickinson, and others inserted between stories. “The constant happiness is curiosity” and “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” And more of this sort. A nice addition. Hopefully this bit of subliminal support will help young readers keep at it.
Bottom line is that Zizzle is a singular, remarkable, beautifully crafted series that should find a home wherever there are young readers, and in libraries across the planet. I dearly hope it finds enough readers to support the publisher continuing to make these lovely, lovely books.
FYI, I received a complimentary copy from PromiseShore, despite the fact that my children are all grown, and there are no wee beasties of the two-legged sort ratting on my rugs. That left reading them to the cats. Nesto was trying to get through the latest Neal Stephenson, but it was too much for him, so I read him some Zizzle. He immediately stopped contemplating consciousness in the digital space removed from the physical, made himself comfortable, and drifted into a nice slumber to the soporific tones of my voice. Of course he might just have been settling in to sleep anyway.
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