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THE BATHTUB PRIMA DONNA

Name: THE BATHTUB PRIMA DONNA
Author: Anne Brouillard
ISBN: 0-8109-4093-0

by Anne Brouillard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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This fine little enchantment from Brouillard follows the consequences of a prima donna discovering the tap will issue no water for her morning bath. “When Prima Donna woke it was a beautiful day./That is what she ordered and she always had her way.” She yodels to the morning and then runs into difficulty with that tub. So off she goes with a score and a music stand; “she climbed the highest hill./She paused and took a deep breath, and then began to trill” a rain song about a hollow where a village’s inhabitants are accustomed to perpetual sunshine. They are surprised when rain begins to fall, then are driven from their houses as the storm waters rise: “They quickly fled the village to seek a drier shore/while the waters swelled up to an even higher score.” By the time she stops singing, Prima Donna has filled her landscape with a vast sea, in which she happily takes a good soak. Brouillard’s illustrations are gems: a beckoning village square, a storm of operatic dimensions, and an unforgettable songbird. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-8109-4093-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE LITTLEST MATRYOSHKA

by Corinne Demas Bliss ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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PLB 0-7868-2125-6 As is true for Pam Conrad’s Tub People, the events in a matryoshka doll’s life depend on external manipulations and circumstances; in this case, it makes the story of a perilous journey fall somewhat flat. A set of the nesting dolls is carved in a Russian village and then sent to a toy shop in America. The outer doll, Anna, has been instructed by the maker to watch over her siblings—“Keep your sisters safe inside you”—but there is nothing she can do when the smallest doll, Nina, is accidentally brushed off the counter and unceremoniously kicked out the door. It is an odyssey in which she has absolutely no active part, nor does she have reactions, for all she possesses is a blank matryoshka face. In the meantime, a young girl who has bought the rest of the set on sale charmingly tucks a little wad of cotton into the next-to-smallest doll so she won’t feel empty. Brown’s atmospheric but docile watercolors often view the matryoshka dolls from a distance, furthering the sense that the story is about events surrounding the dolls, instead of the dolls themselves. An author’s note on the history of matryoshkas is a welcome touch. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-7868-0153-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Hyperion

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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IN THE PALM OF DARKNESS

by Mayra Montero & translated by Edith Grossman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1997

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In The Palm Of Darkness ($21.00; May 1997; 192 pp.; 0-06-018703- 4): A Cuban writers's intensely imaginative portrait of the extremities of Haitian culture rings some fresh changes on the overfamiliar theme of intellectual arrogance humbled by its collision with ``elemental'' peasant wisdom. Montero subtly builds up a revealing contrast between Victor Griggs, a European herpetologist searching for the remaining specimens of an endangered species of amphibian, and his native guide Thierry Adrien's memories of his family's encounter with the island's ubiquitous spirits. This truly original novel is studded with surprises—not least of which is the concept of a species suddenly and entirely disappearing in a milieu where the living and the dead are known to mingle together more or less matter-of-factly. A refreshingly sophisticated treat. (Author tour)