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Tickets to Ride

Name: Tickets to Ride
Author: Mark Rogalski
ISBN: 9780762427826

by Mark Rogalski

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Overview

Welcome to an amusement park unlike any you’ve seen before. From Alligators in the Air, through to the Zebra Zeppelin, the reader is provided with an elegant ticket that admits them onto rides at turns thrilling, mysterious, spectacular-and always breathtaking to look at. In fact, picking a favorite amongst these 26 stunning illustrations proved so difficult, we’ve decided to release this book with six different jackets, each highlighting a different piece of this astonishing artwork. And even after the first perusal, both children and adults alike will go back over these images again and again in search of the items hidden cleverly within them. At the end of the book, a detailed map of this incredible park is also included for hours more of fascinating fun. Tickets to Ride is the debut of a major new talent in children’s picture books. We invite you to tender your ticket and come along for a remarkable ride.

Synopsis

With this eye-popping, astounding debut, Mark Rogalski guides us through an amazing menagerie of one-of-a-kind attractions

Publishers Weekly

In this fantasmagoric children's book debut, subtitled "An Alphabetic Amusement," the alphabet serves only to impose some order on Rogalski's imagination. With solid competence in computer animation techniques, he fashions 26 amusement park rides. Each stars a slick, fabricated mechanical animal, from the kiddie Bumper Bears cars to the Zebra Zeppelin. Each ride appears on a full-page plate on the right-hand page, while a small, intricately designed ticket for the ride appears on the left. The skeletal text on the tickets is slap-dash: "Though not from Yale/ Ole Woodrow Whale/ Will always pass the test." But visually, the tickets show Rogalski's fascination with throwaway paper from the 1950s and '60s; the fonts, borders and colors all mimic the printed material found at amusements and parks of the era. (The book's signal achievement is a map in the back that purports to show the whole amusement park; even its folds are carefully reproduced, and the corners convincingly chipped.) A final spread on which all the rides appear in thumbnail images instructs readers to go back through the book and find a number and the image of a duck in each picture. The first trip through the book is entertaining; the second is genuinely absorbing. All ages. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

The subtitle, "An Alphabetic Amusement," gives a big clue as to what you will find in the book, Each letter of the alphabet is found in the ticket text on the left-hand page, The right-hand page shows a fantastical full color drawing a la Dan Morresey. The simple text is often in the form of a poem where many of the words start with the featured letter. There are challenges posed to readers such as finding the numbers 1 through 26 and a little duck on each page. Sometimes it is obvious, but many times it is not and even for this reviewer a few of the illustrations posed some difficulties. At the end of the book there is a map of Dizzyland and a recap of the images—with the challenge to go back and find the numbers and duck. Also of interest is the jacket, which highlights one of the images and four different jackets have been produced—so be careful that you don't buy the same book thinking it might be a sequel or prequel.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-In "Dizzyland," Rogalski's picture-book amusement park, there's a ride to match each letter of the alphabet. Some of them look playful and fun, such as "Monkey Monorail" and "Yak Kayak"; but many are bizarre and incomprehensible ("Iguana's Ice Show" and "Little Queen Bee") and a few, including "Vampire Village" and "Night Crawler Coaster," seem creepy and sinister. A ticket, written in hackneyed verse, accompanies each ride. There's a hidden number and an animal in each illustration, and a detailed map of the park is included. As an alphabet book, this falls short, but fans of literary puzzle books, such as Martin Handford's "Where's Waldo" (Candlewick) and Jean Marzollo's "I Spy" series (Scholastic), may appreciate Rogalski's effort for its visual whimsy and fanciful design.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.