A great combination: a cryptically amusing, ancient Chinese tale retold with verve and respect for the original, accompanied by stunningly beautiful, transporting artwork. Poole tackles the folktale about the rooster and how he got the funny-looking red thing on his head, setting it in the Miao Kingdom of western China. It all comes about because there are too many suns in the sky (which Poole represents with ancient icons, e.g., yin-yang, the spiral, the maze-like symbol for long life, the raven, a star). When the rains fail, the suns start to parch the earth. Wise men gather to debate a course of action and a clever and skillful archer is called from distant lands. He remedies the problem by shooting the suns’ reflection in a pond, but the one sun that survives is so scared it hides in a cave. Six suns were five too many, but the last one is essential. After others fail to coax the sun from the cave, the lowly rooster gives it a go, and the sun, bewitched by the rooster’s singular song, appears. Once the sun hears the peoples’ cheers, it relaxes and takes its place in the heavens. This story, with many gratifying elements to explore, and exquisite illustrations—folk-art paintings on textured paper—to behold, will keep on giving with each reading. (Picture book/folklore. 3-9)
Pub Date: March 15, 1999
ISBN: 0-8234-1389-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Big Brown Bear, with a natty bowler hat, is all set to paint the house in this cheerful Level 1 reader. Every page presents a full-color scene and a few words of easily predicted, often rhyming text: “Bear is big. Bear is brown. Bear goes up. He comes down.” Big Bear climbs a ladder with a pail of blue paint, while nearby, Little Bear plays with a ball and bat—“Oh no! Little Bear! Do not do that!” These are simple words, but sometimes challenging ones, e.g., there are two uses of up, as in climbing the ladder and washing up. The pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations provide nearly ideal context, while also amplifying the story. The format is attractive and practical, featuring large type on a white background that is placed for easy reading. Beginning readers will be amused by the gentle humor in the book, and feel accomplished to have tackled it themselves. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-201999-5
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Green Light/Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1999
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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