Not as liberating as it wants to be.
A classic, blacked-out and illustrated.
In perhaps—if possible—a greater disservice to this classic fairy tale than the 1989 Disney film, poet and self-described erasurist Farkas “rescues” “The Little Mermaid,” turning what she describes as a tale of a “prince-obsessed fish [who] was willing to give away her…most precious gift, just to land a boy” into a “better, stronger (and yes, feminist) story.” She accomplishes this by blacking out all the nuance along the way. Make no mistake, blackout is a subversive and powerful use of destruction as creation. As an introduction to the concept of blackout poetry, the book serves its purpose—offering up the original text reprinted in full and bound back to back with the poem not as a point of comparison, but as sacrifice for budding young blackout poets. Yet the lack of appreciation for the depth of the original text, of which the tragedy and beauty of destruction is such a core theme, is what makes this unbearably ironic. With her marker liberally applied to Andersen’s prose, Farkas produces gems like “she didn’t want her fins and tail,” and “the sweet witch… / ...beckoned her to see where she belongs. / princess of fishes, of course a boy could never change her.” The project is buoyed only by Triplett’s whimsical illustrations of marine life, a pink-haired White mermaid, and emotive, abstract currents of color rendered in what looks like paint pen.
Not as liberating as it wants to be. (author's note) (Poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951836-07-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Cameron + Company
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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