It’s a tantalizing glimpse into a harsh climate and the culture it nurtures, one that will prompt discussion and may well...
Cels from an animated film illustrate this abbreviated retelling of an Inuit folk tale.
Aranaquq-Baril opens the book with an introduction to “Lumaajuuq,” a lengthy epic that is “one of the most ancient and commonly told in Inuit history.” From there, readers meet “a cruel mother” and her daughter and son, who is blind. The daughter she raises with love, warmth and bear meat; the son she forces to live outside and feeds only dog meat. In spring, when the ice is melted, he seeks out a loon—they are known for their keen eyesight. The loon tells the boy it was his own mother who blinded him and then restores his vision, diving with him into the depths of the lake three times until he “can see as well as a loon.” Now “blinded by revenge,” the young man tricks his mother into a whale hunt, allowing the beast to drag her into the sea—where she becomes a narwhal, forever “a reminder that every act of revenge is a link in a chain that can only be broken by forgiveness.” The moody illustrations employ a palette of grays and blues, the stark white faces of human characters and the loon’s red eyes startling in contrast.
It’s a tantalizing glimpse into a harsh climate and the culture it nurtures, one that will prompt discussion and may well send readers searching for the full story. (Picture book/folk tale. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-927095-57-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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