Ken's Great Adventure [Hardcover]

Klaus Merz (Author), Hannes Binder (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

Ken is embarking on a great adventure. He paints a map of the world onto his helmet, shoves off with his right foot, and glides on his silver scooter across the world. Up hill and down, across mountains, through forests, small villages, and great cities. Ken traverses the globe, and at nightfall arrives safely home to his warm, welcoming family. Ken’s travels—both real and imagined—are chronicled in lyric prose and stunning, detailed illustrations that will inspire young readers on their own journeys of discovery.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2–Ken journeys through countrysides and villages on his silver scooter. The map of the world that he painted on his helmet fuels his imagination: Over his left temple sat the continent of North America. The right side of his head was protected by Asia. Detailed, black-ink line art follows winding trails and provides aerial perspectives of the landscape. Text printed in red and a splash of the color on Ken's T-shirt offer a dramatic contrast to the otherwise black-and-white pictures. While they show his epic quest, the story line is strained and plodding: The boy with the huge helmet on his head brought to mind Atlas, the giant on whose shoulders the heavens rested according to Greek mythology. This slight tale is an additional purchase.–Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

K-Gr. 3. The enticing jacket is an attention grabber. Using a scratchboard technique, Binder has created a dynamic ground-level-view of a boy, Ken, kicking off on his scooter. The helmet he wears is important because on it Ken has painted the world, a map to guide him as he glides on "his silver scooter . . . toward the North Pole and . . . all the way around." On his travels, he zooms through forests, villages, suburbs, and cities, finally returning home long after dark. The narrative, translated from the Swedish, is tight, almost stilted, and without emotion, but the artwork is striking, eclipsing the words. As the child travels his route, the crisp, dramatic, black-and-white scratchboard images exhibit mesmerizing perspectives, which are heightened by the boy's bright red shirt and the red text that runs along the bottom of the pages. The message that Ken can "handle the world on his own" falls flat; his adventure is simply a vehicle for art too exceptional to overlook (even though some American kids will wonder why Ken isn't riding a skateboard). Julie Cummins
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: North-South / Night Sky Books (October 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735820279
• ISBN-13: 978-0735820272
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 7.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,235,280 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)