A complex novella for thoughtful young readers, horse lovers, and campfire storytellers.
This Western for young readers focuses on a horse ranch in Wyoming, an unruly mustang, and a mysterious Shoshone visitor.
Curtin’s debut follows Jesse Alvarez, son of the new foreman at Big Bob Savage’s ranch in Riverton, Wyoming. Jesse’s always the new kid in town; he and his father, Mark, move from job to job, and his mother has mostly been absent since his parents’ separation. But Big Bob, the ranch’s benevolent but firm owner, seems to like them, recognizing their hard work and thorough knowledge. Unfortunately, Big Bob’s teenage son Cade hasn’t inherited his father’s kindness and has let his wealth spoil him. He’s popular and athletic but often a bully, especially to Aaron Little Elk, a Shoshone and outsider in Jesse’s class. Although Jesse appreciates Aaron’s friendship, he sometimes spends more time with friends Mike and Logan, who ride ATVs and play video games. However, when Big Bob acquires a wild mustang and offers to loan him to Jesse for the upcoming rodeo, it turns out that Aaron is the only person who can connect with the stallion. Aaron names him “Dreamcatcher”; he also makes the titular Native American items to keep away his own dreams of a past trauma. When Aaron disappears, Jesse believes it has something to do with the horse and a Shoshone stranger he’s seen around the ranch. This brief tale has many layers, tackling class differences between the Shoshone Aaron and wealthy Cade, Jesse’s parents’ difficult separation, the vicissitudes of youthful friendship, and the relationship between man and animal. The novella’s rising action deftly balances real human drama and spooky supernatural elements: “I’m not afraid of you up here, Cade,” says Aaron. “I know these woods. I know this mountain. This is Shoshone land...my land. It’s a magical place.” Despite occasional clichés (including a predictable divorce subplot), Curtin is never content with simple resolutions. The ending offers satisfying but hard truths, particularly concerning the permanence of loss.
A complex novella for thoughtful young readers, horse lovers, and campfire storytellers.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-61271-246-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: Zumaya Publications
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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