Known for historical fiction (Katie's Trunk, 1992, etc.), Turner's also an accomplished poet (Grass Songs, 1993). Here she turns to nature in a tightly structured cycle of 28 (a lunar number) short poems about the seasons in a northeastern woodland. Each of four septets opens with a poem about the moon, and the entire cycle is stitched together by recurrent appearances of other ``characters'': an owl, a porcupine, herons, and especially frogs, whose activities Turner employs (as Marilyn Singer used bullheads in Turtle in July) as emblems of seasonal change. There is also an ``I'' that ``tastes sky'' (snowflakes), looks through a telescope at geese flying across the moon, sits under a maple lapped by ``waves'' of light and shadow, and buries bones found in the forest with a ``blessing of leaves.'' Noreika's full-bleed watercolors capture the varied lights and colors of weather, time, and seasons. His most dramatic painting, accompanying ``Forest Time,'' a poem about ``death's sundial'' (a circle of feathers marking the spot where an owl has killed a blue jay), shows an unsuspecting jay overlaid by the owl's shadow just before it strikes. Spare and serious; memorable images, verbal and visual. (Poetry/Picture book. 6+)
Pub Date: March 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-02-789513-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994
It starts off innocently enough, with principal Walter Russ asking artist Florence Waters to sell him a drinking fountain for the Dry Creek Middle School. But art and bureaucracy are about as different as, well, flood and drought, and this book pits such opposites with hilarious results. Town villains Dee Eel (president of Dry Creek Water Company) and Sally Mander (chief executive of the Dry Creek Swimming Pool) absconded with the town's water supply, turning what used to be Spring Creek into Dry Creek. This all gets uncovered by ``Sam N.'s fifth-grade class,'' who is doing a project on the history of the town. What makes this tale an unequivocal delight is that it's told through letter, memos, newspaper clippings, school announcements, and inventive black-and-white drawings; even less-skilled readers will be drawn in by the element of perusing ``other people's mail'' to find out why Spring Creek went dry, and to decode the water-related names of the characters. Florence and her intriguing attitude and art win over the class, Sam, and even the stuffy principal—how she does it is part of a tale overflowing with imagination and fun. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-380-97538-6
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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