A lump of coal for this one.
An unusual origin story for Santa Claus.
“Long, long ago in the very north a group of people lived with the reindeer.” Snow never states that the nomadic people in his story are Sami, but he does nothing to keep readers from making the association. The story relates how, one winter solstice, the main character, an unnamed boy, discovers the family’s precious reindeer are missing. He goes out into the snow to find them, following them into a cave that leads deep underground to a magical land of Summer. It’s guarded by three creatures who tell the boy he may never return to his home but who grant him three wishes. He asks for freedom, happiness, and time—experiencing them once each year when he is permitted to return to his family and their clan, who lie in suspended animation during his visit. Each year he leaves gifts, even decorating the inside of their lodge. One year, a guardian of Summer gives him a feather that will enable his reindeer to fly, and on another, anticipating his visit, his family leaves him a red suit trimmed in white. It’s all very clever, but in borrowing the traditional habits of the Sami and failing to clarify that his mythmaking is original, Snow risks clouding many readers’ understanding of a real, extant, and marginalized culture. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.5-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 68.6% of actual size.)
A lump of coal for this one. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-84365-386-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Pavilion Children's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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