Title: At The Ragtag Hotel: The Elevator Ride

Author: Freya Novak

Genre: Children’s Picture Book

 

It’s a baking hot day, and it’s even hotter in the Ragtag Hotel, as the air conditioning has broken. But, before he can fix it, hotel handyman, Dallas Dingo, is on elevator duty and six sweltering hotel residents need to be whizzed up to the fourteenth floor.

Dallas Dingo tries to remain calm as the six attempt to squash into the stifling elevator, one after the other. Meanwhile, the reader wonders what exactly is on the fourteenth floor.

The cover of At The Ragtag Hotel: The Elevator Ride is appealing, the colors bold without being overwhelming. The decision to place the six animal residents along the left-hand side was a good one, drawing a child’s eye up and down and sparking interest.

The characterful animals are nicely expressive, each with individual, quirky aspects that carry through the book. Hotel employee, Dallas Dingo, is placed in the middle and distinguished from the others by looking directly at the reader.

It’s not immediately apparent that they are peering from an elevator, but the bold, jaunty white titling ensures it soon becomes obvious.

Although the reader is treated to an inside title page with a full-length illustration of Dallas Dingo in his traditional bellhop uniform, it does feel as if a page introducing him and the Ragtag Hotel is missing.

Nonetheless, Novak takes the child straight to the title’s purpose, and the first animal, Colin Capybara, needs a ride in Dallas’s elevator.

The graphics are well-drawn and spread across two pages, with care taken in layout and continuity. Illustrator Anastasiya Halionka employs a slightly muted color palette, ensuring the narrative text remains visible on the page.

The simple story follows a similar formula for each animal as they try to board the elevator and grumble about the heat. However, Novak deftly uses different adjectives and verbs to describe the same actions or emotions, subtly building up a vocabulary of synonyms with the entrance of each of the six.

Each animal’s name is alliterative, lending a lyrical, easy-to-read feel to animals that are less common than those typically found in children’s books, while also attaching importance and association in a child’s mind.

Additionally, four of the animals greet Dallas in their primary native dialect, the South American Capybara with “Hola,” the African Ostrich in Swahili, and so forth. Each foreign salutation is printed in a larger font and a different color from the story, with reference to its language origin and meaning connected with dots to the bottom of the page.

It’s a fun, educational touch, but including a glossary, map, or activity-type page at the end would have been beneficial to provide basic information about the habitat and characteristics of the featured animals.

Notwithstanding, each animal is depicted with a distinctive style or specific feature, such as a backpack or necklace, and there are small, playful elements for a child to discover within the illustrations.

As the animals crowd into the stuffy elevator, their perilous ascent is presented in a lively, entertaining style, displaying slanted text, uppercase, and charmingly chaotic artwork.

Once the six residents reach the fourteenth floor, the layout alters slightly, using speech bubbles to bring each animal into focus. Halionka has provided colorful, complementary graphics as the animals frolic in the rooftop pool, offering plenty to engage with.

At The Ragtag Hotel: The Elevator Ride is a sweetly amusing children’s picture book featuring an eclectic mix of animals that are brought to life with charm and humor. The book has equal appeal for both parents and caregivers to the young children they read it to.

 

 

This Editorial Review was written by the Book Review Directory staff. To receive a similarly honest, professional review for one of your own books, click here.