Action!

Starred review from June 15, 2022
McCarthy presents an ambitious encapsulation of the birth of movies with humor and modern touches. Blending her customary, big-eyed cartoons with a more sophisticated realism, McCarthy offers a stirring, occasionally quirky deep dive into early film. From Eadweard Muybridge's galloping horse to the last movies of the silent era, a selection of famous films is presented as McCarthy chronicles cinema history. Meticulous art captures architectural details, silent film stars, and even the world's earliest example of a silly cat video ("The Boxing Cats" from 1894). The book links early films with movies kids may have seen; the Maschinenmensch of Metropolis is paired with C-3PO of Star Wars, Harold Lloyd's Safety Last with Hugo and Back to the Future, and so on. Some inclusions, like Johnny Depp's appearance in Benny & Joon, are unfortunate in light of their stars' behavior. McCarthy briefly addresses the prejudice confronted by people of color in the film industry, with special attention paid to Josephine Baker and contemporary films like Black Panther. Backmatter includes five stories from film's past, all worthy of their own books. The overall effect is less exhausting than it is inspiring. Kids will reach the end and likely be disappointed that the story doesn't continue. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Movie history deserves no less than this stunning encapsulation, cleverly designed and gorgeously rendered. (author's note, bibliography) (Nonfiction picture book. 7-12)

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August 29, 2022
McCarthy breezes through more than a century of cinematic history in this whirlwind tour of select technologies, genres, and films. Starting with Eadweard Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion,” the book also touches on the creation of the Kinetograph, hand-tinted films, and talkies, as well as referencing key figures such as Josephine Baker, Charlie Chaplin, Thomas Edison, Buster Keaton, and the Lumière brothers. Embellished with oversize eyes, playful acrylic paintings have a cartoonlike appeal as McCarthy faithfully recreates stills from short clips and color-saturated moments from The Phantom of the Opera. Other spreads draw connections between classic and contemporary scenes (e.g., starring Charlie Chaplin and Johnny Depp) or make genre-specific comparisons. An author’s note justifies the idiosyncratic high-level coverage, describing the book as a “jumping-off point.” Extensive back matter concludes. Ages 5–8.

September 2, 2022
Grades K-3 This attractive and accessible overview of film history also offers a remarkable amount of absorbing detail, succeeding in its goal of getting children interested in finding out more. The book opens with the impetus behind film's invention--the inadequacy of still images to capture movement--and the various attempts to solve the problem (e.g., innovations by Thomas Edison and others). The text references early films and contemporary ones and introduces trailblazers such as Georges M�li�s, Josephine Baker, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton. Cartoon images, in both color and black and white, depict iconic scenes and actors and emphasize how film has paid homage to earlier creators and creations. A closing section discusses topics such as women directors and the makeup in silent film. While the main body of the book will be enough for readers seeking a brief history, those looking to build on this foundation will appreciate the lengthy bibliography and the list of films cited in the book. A solid purchase for school film clubs and for public library maker collections and arts shelves.

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July 1, 2022
McCarthy takes readers back to the movies in her latest, visually rich informational picture book. More "a jumping-off point" than a thorough history of the cinema, the book covers the evolution of moving images, the innovators (all white men) who helped push the medium forward, and the amazement and shock the first motion pictures caused ("At the end of the show there was complete chaos"). The book excels when McCarthy uses side-by-side shots to mirror early moviemaking techniques, such as with nature photographer Eadweard Muybridge's series of shots of a galloping horse, and to illustrate how early films inspired later movies. In one particularly effective page turn, McCarthy draws a line from groundbreaking early German film Metropolis to Star Wars and Blade Runner, showing striking similarities between set and (droid) character design. McCarthy employs her trademark big-eyed, smiley characters (Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton are suitably silly, and even beloved Star Wars droid R2D2 hilariously sports a giant goggly eye). Extensive back matter includes an author's note, short entries on related topics from "MGM's Leo the Lion" to "The Beginnings of Hollywood," and a selected bibliography.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)