Aimed at readers of Douglas Florian's A Potter (1991) and A Painter (1993), and with just enough detail to hint at etching's challenges and possibilities, Geisert (Roman Numerals: I to MM, 1996, etc.) takes an opportunity to showcase nautical and jungle scenes as well as his more familiar rural views and pigs. A young narrator works with his grandfather in a spacious loft, printing and hand-coloring an array of etchings for a sale. As a book illustrator specializing in this 500-year-old technique, Geisert makes the perfect guide. The furniture and equipment depicted in the full-page and double-page etchings are modeled on his own, and the feelings at several stages of production—from the anxiety of properly timing the printing plate's acid bath to the daydream-inducing tedium of hand- coloring—are unmistakably based on personal experience. A labeled view of the studio precedes a final spread showing each step in an etching's creation. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-395-79754-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
On his first sleepover, Jerome is nonplussed when his friend Robert asks where his pajamas are and then casually offers him a pair. Accustomed to sleeping in his underwear, Jerome quietly accepts the offering. Back home, Jerome thinks about how different families have different customs, and when Robert comes for a return visit, offers him clean underwear to sleep in. Jackson's first book presents the problem and resolution in a low-key, relatively nondidactic way; although Robert's family is well-off and the pajamas become something of a symbol, when Jerome does receive some, he decides to wear them only half the time, because ``this family does things its own way.'' Soman places his African-American characters in a tidy urban setting, with Jerome's five-room apartment looking as spacious as Robert's brownstone. A salutary lesson in values, gently delivered. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8037-1570-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
This labored effort is obviously meant to be funny, but it's more in the goofball style of Beavis and Butthead than an entry in the ranks of fractured fairy tales by such masters as Scieszka/Lane or James Marshall. Dedicated to the latter, this is a sort of ``The Stupids Meet Goldilocks,'' illustrated with Marshallesque settings and characters. The Dumb Bunnies (Momma, in bra-top and skirt, is ``really dumb''; Poppa, in polka dot briefs, ``even dumber''; Baby Bunny is ``the dumbest bunny of all'') leave their wrong-temperature porridge for an outing that includes a picnic inside a working carwash and bowling in the public library while a librarian glares. They come home to flush ``Little Red Goldilocks'' down the toilet. One problem here is that these bunnies aren't out of step in a well-ordered universe; their world is occupied by similarly witless souls. A sign advertising a spelling bee is misspelled; when Momma Bunny notes that someone has been eating her bed, someone has. The lava lamps in a jacket send-up of the Good Night Moon room will be funny to adults, as will several of the other props (some may even notice the pun in lieu of the author's real name). But let's not elevate this by calling it wit—at best, it's harmless silliness. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-590-47708-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
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