by Antoine Ó Flatharta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999
PLB 0-517-70989-9 In this poetic book from an Irish playwright and Rohmann (The Cinder-Eyed Cats, 1997, etc.), an immigrant child dreams of returning to Ireland, carried across the sea by the train that is actually taking him in the opposite direction, away and over the wide prairie. The train itself is a dreamer, yearning to spring its tracks and sail the oceans; instead, in Rohmann’s accomplished, lapidary paintings, it speeds through waves of grass under immense skies, seeming at once majestic and, with its clean, rounded lines, toy- like. The story is a metaphorical take on the immigrant experience—young Conor accidentally drops out the window the model ship his grandfather had carved as a going-away present but later dreams of hearing the old man promise that “there’s bigger boats waiting for you.” Readers will feel Conor’s poignant sense of being severed from his past, and will understand why he accepts that forward, for the train and for him, is the only direction there is. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-517-70988-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
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by Maryann Cocca-Leffler ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2000
cannoli cream off your fingers. (Picture book. 5-8)
Transporting us back to a time when cars had fins, eyeglasses had points, and women wore high heels to go shopping,
Cocca-Leffler (Mr. Tanen’s Ties, 1998) has crafted a perfectly simple and engaging story out of a day spent shopping. The narrator lives on a street that’s on the bus route to the big city of Boston, and all the neighborhood kids get to know Bill the bus driver. One Saturday, Mom and her two daughters take Bill’s bus to Filene’s Basement, where they hunt for bargains and cap the day with ice cream. Another Saturday, Bill takes them to the Italian North End, where they visit the butcher and the baker and vegetable stands, ending with delicious cannoli, which they eat on the bus ride home. The last cannoli always goes to Bill, who calls the trio his "cannoli girls." The acrylic-on-gesso illustrations fill the pages to their edges with cheerful cityscapes, figures, and architecture alike, rendered in bright, affectionate hues. Warm, winning, and as satisfying as licking
cannoli cream off your fingers. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-56397-723-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000
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by Scott Santoro ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1999
Newcomer Santoro’s story of the ice cream truck that pined for a more important role in life suffers from a premise that’s well-worn and still fraying—the person or object that longs to be something “more” in life, only to find out that his or its lot in life is enough, after all. Isaac the ice cream truck envies all the bigger, larger, more important vehicles he encounters (the big wheels are depicted as a rude lot, sullen, surly, and snarling, hardly a group to excite much envy) in a day, most of all the fire trucks and their worthy occupants. When Isaac gets that predictable boost to his self-image—he serves up ice cream to over-heated firefighters after a big blaze—it comes as an unmistakable putdown to the picture-book audience: the children who cherished Isaac—“They would gather around him, laughing and happy”—weren’t reason enough for him to be contented. Santoro equips the tale with a tune of Isaac’s very own, and retro scenes in tropical-hued colored pencil that deftly convey the speed of the trucks with skating, skewed angles. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8050-5296-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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