paper 0-679-97642-6 A lyrical recasting of the Pandora myth with multiple pathways into the heart of the story. A man and woman free a witch trapped in the forest; she promises them three wishes in gratitude, but cautions them that they cannot have all three at once. Soon they have their first wish, a child, and they name her Pandora—Dora for short. Into a box the witch gives them they place all troublesome things in the world and prevent them from hurting their daughter, fulfilling their second wish. Bee stings, berry brambles, and hot coals are among those items tucked away. When a strange lost boy visits the family, Dora’s mother steals his tears, so that Dora will not know sadness. Dora is confused by the boy’s sorrow, and at his request opens the box where the tears are kept to release them. The witch appears in the boy’s place, the parents are horrified, but Dora herself will fulfill their third wish, that she be loved by all, because knowing sorrow will bring her compassion. The solid, geometric shapes of Negrin’s figures and objects are very beautiful in their composition on the page; color and pattern are used to great effect. The magical box lets loose feathery tendrils of light when opened; hair and clothing become abstract, elemental designs. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: July 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-679-87642-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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