Frankenstein

Gr 4—8—Spectacular special effects more than compensate for a plot chopped to barely recognizable hash in this pop-up/graphic-novel hybrid. With occasional obvious exceptions ("I was just uh...grilling something"), the snatches of dialogue and commentary in Ita's small background panels are drawn from the original and provide notes more ponderous than atmospheric: "often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation...." Gosh-Wow moments start on the first spread, however, where a pull of the tab produces a bolt of lightning and the instant transformation of a rocky outcrop below the castle into a properly hideous giant. In subsequent marvels, the initial triumph on Victor Frankenstein's face moves in stages to disgust on a shaped flap composed of no fewer than four linked layers; the monster rears up with the golden locket taken from the child he's just smothered; jumbled body parts of the second monster are torched in an acetate coffin; and the Arctic finale occurs around an entire team of string-linked sled dogs. Solitary readers will need to be familiar with the story to make sense of this iteration, but as a prop for a retelling to an audience or as an exhibit centerpiece, it will be a big hit.—John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library