Entertaining instruction for Muslim readers.
When Sulaiman gets lost in the dark on a Scouts trip, he seeks help through his faith in Allah.
Sulaiman is excited for his weekend exploring caves with the Scouts. (This British import—and the organization—eschews the “Boy” familiar to U.S. readers.) But he has some fears stemming from memories of getting lost in the park or stuck in an elevator, and he carefully engineers his days to avoid potentially scary situations. His friend Jacob assures him they will stick together so he won’t get lost. The practice goes fine, but once they’re in the cave, Sulaiman gets distracted with replacing a battery in his camera and finds himself left behind. His headlamp goes out and he bumps his head. Terrified in the dark, he remembers the instructions to stay where he is, but he also remembers stories from the hadith and Quran that inspire him to ask Allah for help. Full-page and even some full-spread cartoon-style color illustrations punctuate the chapters. The text uses vocabulary and structure at a higher level than the interest level of the story and is not fully formatted in the conventions of American English. Despite rough edges, the story accomplishes its educational objective, and the endmatter about supplication is useful (also written at a higher reading level, as religious texts tend to be).
Entertaining instruction for Muslim readers. (notes, references) (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-86037-840-2
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Kube Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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