Action!: How Movies Began

by Meghan McCarthy, Meghan McCarthy (Illustrator)

Overview

A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year

In this “stunning” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) picture book, award-winning nonfiction creator Meghan McCarthy tells the story of how motion pictures came to be invented and the story of the many people who helped create them.

Movies take us on adventures, introduce us to new worlds, and make us feel, but how did they start?

In her trademark easy-to-follow narrative voice, this fact-filled picture book tells the story of the evolution of movies and the people who worked hard to create them—both on-screen and behind the scenes. In fascinating detail, she shows how early photography capturing motion became silent films, which led to the first color films and how those building blocks allowed for the inspiring movies of today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534452305
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	801,740
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 11.70(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD870L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Meghan McCarthy is the award-winning author and illustrator of many books for children, including Earmuffs for Everyone!: How Chester Greenwood Became Known as the Inventor of Earmuffs; Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton; Pop!: The Invention of Bubble Gum; City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male; Seabiscuit the Wonder Horse; All That Trash; and Action! A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at Meghan-McCarthy.com.

Meghan McCarthy is the award-winning author and illustrator of many books for children, including Earmuffs for Everyone!: How Chester Greenwood Became Known as the Inventor of Earmuffs; Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton; Pop!: The Invention of Bubble Gum; City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male; Seabiscuit the Wonder Horse; All That Trash; and Action! A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her at Meghan-McCarthy.com.

Editorial Reviews

08/29/2022

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. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

This attractive and accessible overview of film history also offers a remarkable amount of absorbing detail ... introduces trailblazers such as Georges Méliès, Josephine Baker, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton... 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.

— BOOKLIST

★ 2022-05-25
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)

Kirkus Reviews