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SING DOWN THE MOON

If Bright Morning were to show her pleasure in the river's running, the new spring's signal to take the sheep up to the mesa, or if her people were to shed tears on The Long Walk into captivity, the gods would be displeased: with the same dignity and reserve, Mr. O'Dell makes of her story the Navaho epic of dispossession and endurance. She has a foretaste of captivity as a servant in a Spanish town, and in mute hostility resists her mistress' overtures. Escaping with two others, she is joined by Tall Boy, haughty as always, who is injured by a Spanish bullet and will no longer be able to pull a bowstring or throw a lance; will he no longer be acceptable as a husband? Then — developments coming like drops of water — the Long Knives, the American soldiers, tell them they must leave the canyon. They go into the high country to await the soldiers' departure but day after day sees the erosion of their hopes until, their hogans and cornfields destroyed, the very trees stripped of nourishing bark, they try to break away. Overtaken, they are driven eastward, soon to be joined by all the clans, the whole nation of the Navaho. Bosque Redondo is a gray flatlands already occupied by irascible Apaches; a baby entrusted to Bright Morning dies, and many. many others; the women are idle, the men listless. So is Tall Boy, now Bright Morning's husband (what is a dangling arm here?), but she spurs him to return to the canyon. . . which they reach at last, to find a few of her precious sheep remaining. A slender story, a novella really, but telling, though one's commitment is to the cause rather than to the people.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1970

ISBN: 0547406320

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

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HOW TO CATCH A MONSTER

From the How To Catch… series

Only for dedicated fans of the series.

When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.

“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.

Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017

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THE WILD ROBOT

From the Wild Robot series , Vol. 1

Thought-provoking and charming.

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  • Kirkus Reviews'
    Best Books Of 2016


  • New York Times Bestseller

A sophisticated robot—with the capacity to use senses of sight, hearing, and smell—is washed to shore on an island, the only robot survivor of a cargo of 500.

When otters play with her protective packaging, the robot is accidently activated. Roz, though without emotions, is intelligent and versatile. She can observe and learn in service of both her survival and her principle function: to help. Brown links these basic functions to the kind of evolution Roz undergoes as she figures out how to stay dry and intact in her wild environment—not easy, with pine cones and poop dropping from above, stormy weather, and a family of cranky bears. She learns to understand and eventually speak the language of the wild creatures (each species with its different “accent”). An accident leaves her the sole protector of a baby goose, and Roz must ask other creatures for help to shelter and feed the gosling. Roz’s growing connection with her environment is sweetly funny, reminiscent of Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. At every moment Roz’s actions seem plausible and logical yet surprisingly full of something like feeling. Robot hunters with guns figure into the climax of the story as the outside world intrudes. While the end to Roz’s benign and wild life is startling and violent, Brown leaves Roz and her companions—and readers—with hope.

Thought-provoking and charming. (Science fiction/fantasy. 7-11)

Pub Date: April 5, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-316-38199-4

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016

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