Coppernickel: The Invention
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Written and illustrated by Wouter van Reek
32 pages |
About the Book
For every child who not only delights in high jinx, slapstick, odd contraptions, but also relishes a good story.
High-spirited, high-energy, and loyal, Coppernickel is a bird of action. His best friend Tungsten is a super adventure dog himself, but in the most low-key way, and, as a bird's best friend, he too is loyal.
Famous in The Netherlands from the animated TV series Keepvogel, this dynamic Dutch duo first made waves in the US when a short animation of this book (then under the name of Stokebird: The Invention) won first prize for animated shorts at the Chicago Children's Film Festival.
In The Invention, Coppernickel discovers a blank page at the end of his favorite book -- a great, big book about every invention ever made, and he takes this as an invitation to create his own. At first he wants to invent something that is simple and very useful, but as he begins to create a machine for picking high-hanging elderberries (his all time favorite food), his enthusiasm gets the better of him and his ever-more-complex machine gets out of hand. This
is no surprise given that whenever Coppernickel has something on his mind he goes to great lengths to accomplish his ideas, until he reaches the greatest possible lengths, after which he goes on to even greater lengths! Fortunately, the level-headed Tungsten is there to save the day—in more ways than one!
Full of intricate and wildly imaginative illustrations that literally fall off the page, The Invention brings the process of drawing, inventing and exploring to life. Children will marvel over Coppernickel's marvelous machine, while delighting in the funny antics of this daring duo!
Awards and Reviews
"Originally published in Dutch, this book has a distinct foreign feel that makes it all the more interesting. The illustrations are humorous and dare I say, inventive? The ever-growing invention of Coppernickel is very detailed, contrasting nicely with the rough style that the characters and setting are drawn in. The text is equally successful, using short sentences that allow the illustrations themselves to tell most of the story. A great book about imagination and inventions." - Kids Lit
“The eclectic mix of visual simplicity and detail combined with straightforward text result in a timeless tale of imagination and friendship that children will be drawn to and enjoy again and again.” – School Library Journal
“Coppernickel ... Pure Magic! This is one of those books that I want to buy for every child I know! It is all here: imagination, humor, just a bit of danger, quirky illustrations, and a story line that gives children credit for being bright enough to understand multiple levels of graphic representation.” – Leah van Belle, Of Cabbages & Kings
“This is a very delightful picture book, especially for the creative mind that is detail oriented.” – Jan the Book Lady
"Coppernickel: The Invention is a children's picturebook about Coppernickel, an intrepid anthropomorphic bird, and his loyal best friend the dog Tungsten. Coppernickel is determined to come up with a new invention—something that no one has ever thought of before. He designs an 'extending elderberry gripper', but the machine he works on becomes so overblown and overdone that it quickly breaks down. Meanwhile, Tungsten comes up with a simple stick with a fork on the end—perfect for the job! A simple and charming tale about not losing the crux of a bright idea amid excessive details, and a secondary message about how much fun it is to experience the outdoors." - Midwest Book Review
"Sometimes keeping things simple is the best practice. That is the moral of this story about two best friends, Coppernickel the bird and Tungsten the dog, who set out to invent a machine for picking hard-to-reach elderberries. The clever cartoon characters are outlined in bold strokes, filled in with flat colors, and have elongated dot eyes. They are quite expressive despite their minimalist rendering. The slightest change in line—the shape of his mouth, for instance—has Tungsten shifting from reflective to horrified to angry. As both he and Coppernickel sketch out their inventions on sheets of paper, the bird’s illustrations rapidly spill over to the walls and the floor, while the dog’s sheet remains relatively blank. Although essentially a line drawing, Coppernickel’s diagram is quite complicated in the number of gears it has; and when he becomes physically caught in his own invention, van Reek shifts to depicting the sequence of events in a series of miniature square panels. The eclectic mix of visual simplicity and detail combined with straightforward text results in a timeless tale of imagination and friendship that children will be drawn to and enjoy again and again." – SLJ, Kim T. Ha, Elkridge Branch Library, MD
"This is one of those books that I want to buy for every child I know! It's all here: imagination, humor, just a bit of danger, quirky illustrations, and a story line that gives children credit for being bright enough to understand multiple layers of graphic representation. In fact ... this book is so amazing, that it went missing when I circulated books for review at a children’s literature presentation. (It gives me some comfort to know that the book thief at least has excellent taste!)
Coppernickel, inspired by a book he’s reading about famous inventions, enlists his canine sidekick, Tungsten, to help him dream up a machine to pick high-hanging elderberries from the tallest tree branches. Caught up in his designing frenzy, Coppernickel creates a behemoth machine that turns on its creator in the ensuing madcap pandemonium. Luckily, Tungsten is there to save the day with his eye for simplicity!
A delightful story about the power of imagination and the thrill of coloring outside the lines (literally and metaphorically). The attention to detail in the illustrations is a marvel; even the endpapers are richly decorated like the pages of the book that Coppernickel is seen reading—resplendent with tiny drawings of inventions and runic-looking text.
Originally published in the Netherlands; published in the U.S. by Enchanted Lion Books, a small press that is an excellent source for high quality, international books." - Leah van Belle, Of Cabbages and Kings
“Most people probably think of Donald duck or tweety when it comes to animated birds, but those are just twittering balls of feathers compared to stokebird (aka Coppernickel). Stokebird is the ordinary superhero of the series, he's an inventor and explorer of such diverse things as his own drawings, infinity and all sorts of odd machinery.
What makes Stokebird so great is that every frame of the animation is imbued with a charming, innocent sense of childlike wonder. It isn't sugary sweet, or kitschy, but it will take you back to those feelings you had when you were younger and you could marvel at the idea of infinity (well you don't have to be young to do that) or how a bee flies. Wonderfully animated by Wouter Van Reek (who does everything on the series except the music) using his own special technique: handmade computer animations, the series looks stunning in it's graphic simplicity. Stokebird is one of those shows you wish were around when you were younger." -- Pelham-Grenville, Imdb
