A wild mother duck lands in a pond outside a Tokyo office building; seemingly oblivious to the crowds of human observers, she raises her brood, then leads them across an eight-lane highway to a roomier body of water—the great moat in the Emperor's Imperial Gardens. The birds become national media celebrities; reporters camp out as police officers hover, ready to stop traffic when Mother decides to make the move. Later, three ducklings are washed away in a storm, but after an anxious search, two are recovered- -including the smallest, Chibi. Many children will have caught glimpses of this modern Make Way for Ducklingslike family on the news or in a documentary that appears frequently in the US. Brenner (The Earth Is Painted Green, 1994, etc.) and Takaya relay the facts with obvious affection for their subject and make the text just long enough to be divided into two chapters; it includes a smidgen of Japanese. Otani's neatly drawn, evenly lit watercolors capture the tale's simple charm in clean, roomy scenes of smiling people in casual Western dress photographing—but never trying to feed or handle—the dappled, lively ducklings. (notes, glossary) (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 20, 1996
ISBN: 0-395-69623-2
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
This exploration of the fear of the new and different—the strange, as in “stranger”—is so heavily tilted to the gathering worries of the young protagonists that the ultimate meeting with the object of their concern is supremely anticlimactic. Two kittens, Cosy and Posy, are informed by their mother that Giraffe is coming to dinner. Having never met Giraffe, the kittens are at first curious and then increasingly alarmed as they hear from their friends about Giraffe’s oddness, from his long neck and spots to his height. When Giraffe appears, he offers the kittens his neck as a slide and instantly all is right with the world. There is relief, but no sense that the kittens know how baseless their fears were, nor that their trepidations were simply products of their imaginations. Readers may come away with the feeling that the kittens were soothed this time, but that the next time their fears will be just as out of control. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-531-30059-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
Everything turns out right in this salubrious, good-natured account of everyday life in a one-room schoolhouse on an island in Maine where “the only cars were three old pickups.” Setting determines the life of nine-year-old Pru and the lives of the friends and family who surround her. She adores her teacher, Miss Sparling, and is bent on seeing that the woman does not—as have teachers in the past—leave the island after one year. In her efforts to put a good face on island living, Pru and a buddy raise money by recycling, planning to buy a Newfoundland for Miss Sparling. Every quiet episode is, by itself, smaller than a breadbox—finding a message in a bottle, making a new friend, participating in pet day at school—but they fit together neatly for a gratifying wishes-come-true ending. The amicable characters and genial tone harken back to simpler times, when afterschool activities meant discovering shells at the beach, and every sunset was an event. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-670-88349-2
Page Count: 61
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999
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