by Eve Bunting & illustrated by David Christiana ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1997
From Bunting (On Call Back Mountain, p. 138, etc.), a remarkably succinct and knowing "autobiography" of a mummy that provides the essence of life in the Egypt of the pharaohs, and which is strikingly illustrated by Christiana (The First Snow, 1996, etc.). The favored, beautiful daughter of a nomarch dances one evening for the pharaoh's brother, Ti. Soon she is a cherished wife, interrupting her idyllic existence only to revisit the home in which she once lived. Her parents are gone, but a house snake, set to catch grain-thieving mice, remains. "The same snake or another. Who could tell?" Heb-Nefert's ponderings arise from her current museum-display vantage point, a 3,000-year period of mummification in "the silent twilight of the afterlife," taken up "when day changed to eternity" and during which she has seen that all things change. Now she hovers in spirit above the display case at which museum-goers express astonishment that her mummy and the one near it—the mummy of her beloved husband—were once living people. Heb-Nefert thinks them foolish for not foreseeing that soon enough they will be dust and bones while she will remain as she is now, "black as night, stretched as tight as leather on a drum," although, in a stunning final line, there is a proud, immutable, and very human fact: "Once I was beautiful." Christiana provides haunting portraits, hints of a spirit world, and misty glimpses as well as bold scenes of the past. A startling shot of a contemporary child underscores Heb-Nefert's dulcet lament in this compelling work. (Picture book. 6-11)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-200479-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1997
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by Adam Gidwitz ; illustrated by Hatem Aly ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2018
Fantasy training wheels for chapter-book readers.
Elliot’s first day of school turns out to be more than he bargained for.
Elliot Eisner—skinny and pale with curly brown hair—is a bit nervous about being the new kid. Thankfully, he hits it off with fellow new student, “punk rock”–looking Uchenna Devereaux, a black girl with twists (though they actually look like dreads in Aly’s illustrations). On a first-day field trip to New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, the pair investigates a noise in the trees. The cause? A Jersey Devil: a blue-furred, red-bellied and -winged mythical creature that looks like “a tiny dragon” with cloven hooves, like a deer’s, on its hind feet. Unwittingly, the duo bonds with the creature by feeding it, and it later follows them back to the bus. Unsurprisingly, they lose the creature (which they alternately nickname Jersey and Bonechewer), which forces them to go to their intimidating, decidedly odd teacher, Peruvian Professor Fauna, for help in recovering it. The book closes with Professor Fauna revealing the truth—he heads a secret organization committed to protecting mythical creatures—and inviting the children to join, a neat setup for what is obviously intended to be a series. The predictable plot is geared to newly independent readers who are not yet ready for the usual heft of contemporary fantasies. A brief history lesson given by a mixed-race associate of Fauna’s in which she compares herself to the American “melting pot” manages to come across as simultaneously corrective and appropriative.
Fantasy training wheels for chapter-book readers. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3170-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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by Joseph Bruchac ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1996
Ohkwa'ri and his twin sister, Otsi:stia, 11, are late-15th century Mohawks living in what would become New York State. Both are exemplary young people: He is brave, kind, and respectful of his elders, and she is gentle and wise beyond her years. One day Ohkwa'ri hears an older youth, Grabber, and his cronies planning to raid a nearby Abenaki village, in violation of the Great League of Peace to which all the Iroquois Nations have been committed for decades. When Ohkwa'ri reports what he has heard to the tribal elders he makes a deadly enemy of Grabber. Grabber's opportunity for revenge comes when the entire tribe gathers for the great game of Tekwaarathon (later, lacrosse). Ohkwa'ri knows that he will be in great danger during the long day of play and will have to use all his wits and skills to save himself and his honor. Bruchac (Between Earth and Sky, p. 445, etc.) saturates his novel with suspense, generating an exciting story that also offers an in-depth look at Native American life centuries ago. The book also offers excellent insights into the powerful role of women in what most readers will presume was a male-dominated society. Thoroughly researched; beautifully written. (Fiction. 8- 11)
Pub Date: June 1, 1996
ISBN: 0140385045
Page Count: 155
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1996
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