Power and Glory [Hardcover]

Emily Rodda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1996 | Age Level: 4 and up

The author of The Pigs Are Flying! and Finders Keepers has created a picture book as current as the latest video game. With bold illustrations by Geoff Kelly, here is a book for every child who loves electronic games. And what child doesn't? Full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A video game overlaps with family dynamics in this rousing but possibly overstimulating picture book from an Australian author and artist. When the narrator receives the game "Power and Glory" as a birthday present, he begins trying to defeat its lineup of enemies. Yet each time he meets a new villain, a family member cuts in-for "I fight the witch... I fight the witch," for example, his mother, broomstick in hand, orders him off to breakfast ("Game over"). A vulture heralds his sister, dressed in a sweater that echoes the bird's plumage; and so forth. Replaying the game from the beginning after each interruption, Rodda builds up a throbbing rhythm that approximates the intensity of the play. Linocut-style pictograms of game icons appear amid the text, and the typeface changes size and color for emphasis on approaching danger. Full-page futuristic-style paintings, composed of pointillistic fields of hot orange, yellow and green, alternate between family scenes and battles within the video dimension. The subject will be dear to many in the target audience, but some parents might object to the way the violent gaming action ("I jump him, thump him, thrash him, trash him... and I win! YES!!!") spills into the story and pumps up the reader. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 4?An Australian import that tackles the insidious adolescent pastime and electronic metaphor for social interaction: the video game. With illustrations reminiscent of a Lane Smith/Dan Yaccarino collaboration, Kelly takes Rodda's cumulative story about a boy attempting to play his new video game, the omnipotent sounding "Power and Glory," and taps the contemporary imagination. Amid all the emphatic interruptions from his mother, twin brothers, sister, drooling dog, and dad, the valiant lad tries to give the video witch, goblins, vulture, beast, and ogre a run for their money. This story should elicit strong empathy from the youngsters who can enjoy the visual play of inter-family quibbling and the catharsis of blasting these distractions ("I jump him [the ogre], thump him, thrash him, trash him, mush him, crush him, I defeat him and I win!") by pushing the right buttons. Power and Glory is a big, bold, colorful, and cartoony quest for control over electronic nemeses.?John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books (April 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688142141
• ISBN-13: 978-0688142148
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Power and Glory, July 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Power and Glory (Hardcover)

This a wonderful read aloud book about video games and the students I have read this book to in my library classes loved it. A book that is well written about something that alot of children are currently playing.