Book Descriptions
for Out of the Shadows by Fiona Robinson
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Born in Berlin in 1899, young Lotte Reiniger was entranced by the new technology of movies as well as traditional stories, using her paper cutting skills and a set of puppets to stage a living room production of Romeo and Juliet. As a young adult she joined the crew of famed actor and director Paul Wegener, first creating intertitles and eventually designing sets, costumes, and special effects for his films. An early adopter of stop motion animation and inventor of the multiplane camera, Lotte also made the first full-length silhouette animation film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a box office success. Stylized illustrations and silhouettes capture the time period of Lotte’s life and the creative quality of her groundbreaking art in this captivating account. An extensive Author’s Note provides further details about Lotte’s personal life and work in animation, including a discussion of orientalism and stereotyping in The Adventures of Prince Achmed. ©2022 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
(Ages 5-10)
CCBC Choices 2023. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2023. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
Out of the Shadows is an innovative picture book biography about an unsung hero of early animation.
Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981) was a German film director and animator best known for The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which was released in 1926 and is the oldest surviving animated movie. (It came out a full 11 years before Disney’s Snow White!) As a little kid, Reiniger loved reading fairy tales and fell in love with puppetry. At school, she learned about Scherenschnitte, or papercuts, which helped her create her signature style of silhouettes. She grew up to make more than 40 films throughout her long career, most of which were fairy tales that used her stop-film animation technique of hand-cut silhouettes. Reiniger is now seen as the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation and the inventor of an early form of the multiplane camera.
With art inspired by Reiniger’s cut-paper style and a text that uses a fairy-tale motif that mimics her movies, author-illustrator Fiona Robinson’s Out of the Shadows is a sweeping tribute to one of most important figures of animation, whose influence still resonates today.
“Every spread offers an exceptional visual experience, regularly amplifying aspects of the narrative.”—Horn Book Magazine (Starred Review)
Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981) was a German film director and animator best known for The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which was released in 1926 and is the oldest surviving animated movie. (It came out a full 11 years before Disney’s Snow White!) As a little kid, Reiniger loved reading fairy tales and fell in love with puppetry. At school, she learned about Scherenschnitte, or papercuts, which helped her create her signature style of silhouettes. She grew up to make more than 40 films throughout her long career, most of which were fairy tales that used her stop-film animation technique of hand-cut silhouettes. Reiniger is now seen as the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation and the inventor of an early form of the multiplane camera.
With art inspired by Reiniger’s cut-paper style and a text that uses a fairy-tale motif that mimics her movies, author-illustrator Fiona Robinson’s Out of the Shadows is a sweeping tribute to one of most important figures of animation, whose influence still resonates today.
“Every spread offers an exceptional visual experience, regularly amplifying aspects of the narrative.”—Horn Book Magazine (Starred Review)
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
