Eric Carle couldn't ask for a more suitable showcase than Singer's short and obvious fable about how an elephant, a lion, a fox and 31 other animals vie to be taken onto the ark — each one claiming priority on grounds of being strongest, largest, cleverest, or whatever. At last the dove, when his turn comes round, reminds them all anticlimactically that "each one of us has something the other does not have" and Noah agrees that there is no need to boast and compete, for God has ordered him to take creatures of all kinds. Actually the pictures only strengthen our suspicion that Carle can't illustrate a story; instead he merely displays his one-note repertoire of flat, collagey animal portraits. Of course the sheer scale and number of animals on parade could make this a nursery success.
Pub Date: March 15, 1974
ISBN: 0374483825
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1974
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A scrumptious treat to be savored and enjoyed, just like a fine holiday dinner.
On Christmas Eve, a large apartment house on 133rd Street in the Bronx becomes the site of a multicultural neighborhood party.
Manzano, a Pura Belpré honoree and Maria on Sesame Street, teams up with Caldecott honoree Priceman for this vibrant story. The setting is the apartment of a Puerto Rican family preparing their special Christmas Eve dinner. Mami is trying to cook a huge roast, but it won’t fit in her small oven. Papi and José decide to take the roast to their friend who owns a pizzeria to see if he can help. On their way, they meet several neighbors and friends of different ages and ethnic groups; all are stressed, lonely, or worried about money. When the father and son return with the cooked roast, its delicious aroma transforms everyone who smells it, wafting them along on swirls of contented delight. They all float up the stairs to the apartment for a Christmas Eve dinner, fitting everyone into just one small apartment—a Christmas miracle. The polished text uses dramatic pacing, dialogue, emotion, and characterization to excellent effect. Priceman’s dazzling illustrations are filled with pulsating energy, glowing colors, and the radiant smiles of the neighbors who find community together. A magical, hopeful vitality permeates the art, reflected in multiple swirling elements wound through the illustrations.
A scrumptious treat to be savored and enjoyed, just like a fine holiday dinner. (Picture book. 4-9)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-689-87887-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Although metaphysical rumblings may disturb adults, this wily symbolism-studded fantasy should appeal to children of an imaginative turn. While exploring an old English mansion, the four children—Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy—discover through passing into a wardrobe, the strange land of Narnia, where it is winter without ever becoming Christmas. The children soon are swept up in the terror of the rule of the White Witch, fighting with the other subjects—all animals—and the glorious Lion, Asian, who brings spring and hope with him. In spite of the White Witch's terrific enslavement of Edmund, her horrid power, which changes living things to stone, and the sacrificial death of Aslan, the forces of light win, the children are made kings and queens, and Asian returns to life. The plot thickens to a pretty heavy pudding at the end, but the prose is witty and the novel action is fast-moving. Not recommended for adults!
Pub Date: Nov. 6, 1950
ISBN: 978-0-06-171505-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1950
SEEN & HEARD
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