The passing on of a traditional art from grandparent to grandchild is a worthy topic, but this short book provides too quick...
What happens when a young city girl wakes up early in her grandma’s village?
In the courtyard, she sees a large design of wavy lines enclosed in squares. There are graceful half-circles and curvilinear designs forming diamonds and teardrops. Grandma tells her about the custom of mixing rice flour and sugar and inviting ants and birds to share in this bounty as a good deed. Adding colored dyes, women create intricate designs to beautify exterior walls, courtyards and streets. The girl sees the designs everywhere. She wonders: “Where will I do a rangoli at our flat in the city?” Using a slate and chalk, Grandma demonstrates a design that she can replicate in her apartment hallway. The watercolor-and-pastel illustrations vary from full-bleed double-page spreads to smaller panels; some illustrations feature cartoonlike, wide-eyed people and animals, and others focus on the rangoli, both geometric and pictorial. Outside of the subtitle, there is no mention of place, although the illustrations picture Indian life. In India, where this book was originally published, this art may have seemed familiar. Here, children with no prior knowledge may still be intrigued by the designs and the custom, to which this slim book is a brief introduction.
The passing on of a traditional art from grandparent to grandchild is a worthy topic, but this short book provides too quick a glimpse of India and no real story development. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84780-179-1
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tender bedtime tale set in a too-seldom-seen northern world.
A quiet book for putting young children to bed in a state of snowy wonder.
The magic of the north comes alive in a picture book featuring Inuit characters. In the sky at nighttime, snow falls fast. / … / In the sky at nighttime, a raven roosts atop a tall building. / … / In the sky at nighttime, a mother’s delicate song to her child arises like a gentle breeze.” With the repetition of the simple, titular refrain, the author envisions what happens in a small town at night: Young children see their breath in the cold; a hunter returns on his snowmobile; the stars dazzle in the night sky. A young mother rocks her baby to sleep with a song and puts the tot down with a trio of stuffed animals: hare, polar bear, seal. The picture book evokes a feeling of peace as the street lamps, northern lights, and moon illuminate the snow. The illustrations are noteworthy for the way they meld the old world with what it looks like to be a modern Indigenous person: A sled dog and fur-lined parkas combine easily with the frame houses, a pickup truck, power lines, and mobile-hung crib. By introducing Indigenous characters in an unremarkably familiar setting, the book reaches children who don’t always see themselves in an everyday context.
A tender bedtime tale set in a too-seldom-seen northern world. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77227-238-3
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Inhabit Media
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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