The Saturday Kid [Hardcover]

Cheryl Carlesimo (Author), Edward Sorel (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

Saturday is Leo's favorite day of the week. It's the day he goes to the movies. The only problem is Morty, the neighborhood bully and troublemaker, who gets Leo thrown out of the movie one afternoon -- for something Morty has done! Leo dreams of getting even with Morty, but how?

Soon Leo is chosen to play his violin in a concert at City Hall -- an event covered by a newsreel cameraman -- and he actually shakes hands with the Mayor! But when Leo tells his friends about the concert, Morty just jeers at him and tries to pick a fight. The way in which Morty finally gets his comeuppance makes a totally satisfying ending for Leo and for readers.

In a lively text with glorious, masterfully conceived and painted pictures, Edward Sorel, a distinguished artist, gives a splendid sense of New York in the 1930s and a boy's dreams of glory come true.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-4-Noted caricaturist Sorel applies his signature sketchy style to a period story of spunk and adventurous comeuppance. Leo, who lives with his mother in New York City in the 1930s, has two obsessions: Saturdays at the movies and playing the violin. When Morty, the neighborhood bully, gets him thrown out of the theater, the boy longs to get even. Leo's movie-style daydreams of revenge as a G-man, pirate buccaneer, and World War I pilot are just flights of fancy. Little does he dream that his opportunity to play the violin for the Mayor will make the newsreel and satisfyingly quash any future trouble from Morty. As Sorel's fine line shading gives dimension to figures and objects, the clothing and setting details give dimension to the locale and time period. This pixilated glimpse of an era past-with a trip to the Automat, elevated trains, and Saturday matinees-is depicted on large pages that draw readers into the scenarios. A lot of nostalgia, an appealing underdog, and good old-fashioned moxie will charm any child who dares to dream.
Julie Cummins, New York Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 5-8. Robust, larger-than-life scenes awash in nostalgia portray the New York of another era, when Saturdays were for going to the movies, and all the stories had happy endings. Leo is a nice kid bothered by a bully named Morty, who manages to get the usher to boot Leo out of the theater. Later, Morty disparages Leo's account of playing violin and shaking hands with the mayor. Leo comes out on top, however, when Morty and his parents turn up at the same theater where Leo has gone with his mom. There, everyone gets to see the newsreel footage of a floor-to-ceiling Leo playing violin and being congratulated by the mayor. "Keep up the good work," says Morty's dad afterward, and Leo knows he's safe from Morty's mouth. The dynamic pen-and-wash drawings are never static; their rush of detail captures the city with fond affection. Whether the scenes are pulsing cityscapes or a cozy apartment, the mood is energetic and upbeat, and Leo is a winner. Denise Wilms
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry; 1st edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689823991
• ISBN-13: 978-0689823992
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,755,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good story and marvelous artwork, September 22, 2000

By 

William McEwen (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Saturday Kid (Hardcover)

Leo is a young man with a violin, a love of the movies, and a punk nemesis named Morty.

This is the perfect book for sharing between adult and child. Have a child read it to you -- slowly, please, so you can study and enjoy Sorel's rich artwork. Sorel is gifted in his ability to create faces full of life, and his renderings of 1930s New York are atmospheric and vibrant. You'll find yourself looking at the pictures again and again.

Also recommended: Sorel's "Unauthorized Portraits," a well-printed survey of Sorel's cartoons, covers, and career.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, nostalgic and very, very fun!!, May 11, 2001

By 

Chess Heart "paxbear" (Canton, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Saturday Kid (Hardcover)

The hero of "The Saturday Kid" is Leo. He's a young man with a gift for playing violin, a WWI pilot's hat, and a taste for movies at the Luxor Theater in New York. He's also got a problem: a bully named Morty is always picking on him.

One Saturday, when Leo is engrossed in watching "G-Men" on the big screen, Morty sits down next to him and starts causing trouble of the worst kind-the kind where LEO gets in trouble and is kicked out of the theater! With his vivid imagination, Leo can envision all sorts of ways to get even with Morty; they play out in his mind like the giants of the silver screen.

Life goes on, Leo practices his violin and even gets a chance to play for the mayor of New York while a newsreel records the whole event! Proud of his accomplishments, Leo tells his friends all about it, only to have Morty dash his feelings to pieces when he says that Leo is full of baloney. But, sometimes the good guys DO win, and in the end, Leo gets his revenge in a wonderfully satisfying way...

"The Saturday Kid" is both beautifully detailed and nostalgic. The book harkens back to the 1930's of New York where the El trains ran high and between the rows of apartments, you could buy a slice of pie at the Automat for 15 cents, and movie theaters were palatial palaces where a Saturday at the pictures was the high point of the week. It's a small bit of American history with a story as old as childhood: the careful, kind child dealing with the unfair abuses of the bully.

The illustrations are large and intricate. Loew's Paradise Theater, with it's footmen, ushers, doormen and elevator operators, it's twinkling chandeliers and 4-story tall screen will astonish children used to today's teeny-weeny multiplexes and VCR's. To think that such a place once existed just to show movies!!

"The Saturday Kid" is truly a wonderful little slice of history, and teachers could easily form a whole social studies thematic unit around this one book alone. It strikes me as the perfect sort of book for grandparents and grandchildren to share with each other. A triumph of a book, and highly recommended!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What I Learned at the Movies, December 15, 2004

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Saturday Kid (Hardcover)

The beautiful, stylized illustrations of the great Edward Sorel not only evoke 1930's New York, but also celebrate the icons and sociology of that place and time. For Sorel, who dedicates the book "To the New York City of my childhood," it was apparently a time of visible class differences (symbolized by neighborhood bully Morty, middle class hero Leo, and drawings of the disdainful rich) and social turmoil (fervent activists lecture passersby near a building with huge NRA signs). Leo is what the movies used to call "a good boy," he diligently practices his violin, and he's grateful for opportunities big (he's filmed playing the violin for Fiorella LaGuardia!) and small (a 20-cent pie at the Automat). Most importantly, the respectable Leo doesn't actually fight Morty, instead, he fantasizes revenge in daydreams reenacting scenes from his beloved Bogart, Robinson, Cagney, and Flynn adventure films.

Sorel draws big screen style pictures of these daydreams, placing young Leo en scene with his movie idols. Cagney shoots Bogart and Robinson as Leo handcuffs Morty; Errol Flynn gives a winning smile as he watches young Leo disarm "Senor Morty's" sword with a thrust--of his violin bow. Sorel's pictures replicate the high contrast, angular language of these films. Leo is not himself violent (Bogart, the person, did not really murder anyone). and his daydreams are recognizable escapes into imagined glory.

There's a rather old-fashioned resolution to this story as well. It takes place in the exquisitely drawn movie theater, Loew's Paradise. After watching the newsreel of Leo playing before the mayor, Morty's parents congratulate the young violinist: "... [Morty's] mother told Leo's mother how much she wished she had a son who could play the violin." (Ouch!) Morty, scowling, hands in pocket and hunched over, looks away. And though "Leo almost felt sorry for him," his proud, upright posture doesn't look very sympathetic. These are the mean streets of Depression-era NYC, and Sorel doesn't sugarcoat the times. While this seemed a bit harsh and abrupt, it's probably also a more accurate portrayal of "conflict resolution" in Leo and Morty's New York. Sorel could treated this with the modern, healthier, talk-it-over approach, but that wouldn't have fit this particular slice of the Big Apple. An excellent book by a superb illustrator.