Wily, undercutting narration translates drudgery into problem-solving.
Viking girl Dagfrid struggles against gender roles.
Dagfrid’s sheltered older brother, Odalrik, is kept home while the other boys “burn and pillage villages.” Instead, he lounges on his boat and occasionally practices for his warrior future by running and yelling at livestock. Meanwhile, Dagfrid’s kept busy with endless chores. When her grandmother announces she has the honor of preparing a codfish feast for the chieftains (all the village’s men), she asks her parents why she must work while her brother relaxes and hears stories about the ridiculous vows to Thor her parents made before marrying. Odalrik, who’s bored beyond belief at not being allowed to do anything useful, tells Dagfrid about yet another set of silly parental vows—all concerning duties for male and female children. The siblings go behind their elders’ backs and join forces to cook the feast, giving Odalrik a break from boredom and a chance to learn something and lightening Dagfrid’s workload. Countering the silly, restrictive vows from before, the siblings vow to each other that they’ll allow any children they have to choose their own activities. Readers of this French import will enjoy Dagfrid’s modern, pragmatic mindset juxtaposed with the puerile, unquestioning adults—and that the kids tackle these conflicts themselves. In expressive, active spot illustrations, all characters are White.
Wily, undercutting narration translates drudgery into problem-solving. (Historical fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781646908059
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Arctis Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (1965) upgrades to The Mice and the Rolls-Royce.
In Windsor Castle there sits a “dollhouse like no other,” replete with working plumbing, electricity, and even a full library of real, tiny books. Called Queen Mary’s Dollhouse, it also plays host to the Whiskers family, a clan of mice that has maintained the house for generations. Henry Whiskers and his cousin Jeremy get up to the usual high jinks young mice get up to, but when Henry’s little sister Isabel goes missing at the same time that the humans decide to clean the house up, the usually bookish big brother goes on the adventure of his life. Now Henry is driving cars, avoiding cats, escaping rats, and all before the upcoming mouse Masquerade. Like an extended version of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), Priebe keeps this short chapter book constantly moving, with Duncan’s peppy art a cute capper. Oddly, the dollhouse itself plays only the smallest of roles in this story, and no factual information on the real Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is included at the tale’s end (an opportunity lost).
Innocuous adventuring on the smallest of scales. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6575-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure.
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
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