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PRESCHOOL
Barnett, Mac

The Great Zapfino

32 pp. | Simon/Beach Lane | April, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5344-1154-8 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-5344-1155-5 $10.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Marla Frazee. The stage is set, the circus curtains part, and out walks the short, bald, and unassuming Great Zapfino, who will leap from death-defying heights onto a tiny trampoline. Barnett plays up the drama from the story's breathtaking launch, as the ringmaster promises: "Zapfino will dodge peril and brave calamity in an impossible feat of derring-do!" But after climbing a towering ladder, the performer looks down, glances at readers, and then disappears. In the following wordless scenes, we see him hop on a plane to a sunny seaside town and, fittingly, take a job as an elevator operator in a high rise. This quiet new life is good until he inadvertently starts a fire with his toaster. It is finally in this moment that, in order to save his own life, the man triumphantly leaps from the top floor ("Behold!") onto a trampoline held by firefighters. Readers can interpret the story in more than one way: does Zapfino overcome a fear of heights in a moment of crisis? Had he merely been tired of the pressure to perform? Perhaps he wants to accomplish the leap all on his own, without a showy cape and the probing eyes of an audience. Most of the story plays out wordlessly in Frazee's animated grayscale pencil ­illustrations. With its expert pacing and delightful details, this is a splendid collaboration between two picture-book greats.
Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

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