Harrison debuts with this rousing tale of a child puppeteer in Nazi-occupied Greece. When the Germans begin rounding up orphans for deportation, Theo, ten, and his older brother, Socrates, flee Athens for a small mountain village. On the way, Socrates attempts an act of sabotage and is shot. Enraged, Theo joins the resistance, working with arms smugglers, distributing forbidden newspapers, taking part in Operation Elijah (a plan to rescue Athens’s Jews), setting explosives, and in a public act of defiance, putting on a shadow puppet show in which humpbacked trickster/hero Karagiozis overcomes bumbling caricatures of Hitler and Mussolini. The author lays a catalog of tragedies and atrocities over a vividly detailed picture of the beliefs, customs, and textures of Greek daily life, portraying an old, stable culture in which “the past was alive in the present,” and in which the Nazis are regarded as only the latest in a long line of troubles. It’s an inspiring story of the apparently powerless battling for freedom in the face of savage reprisals. (glossary) (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-19959-3
Page Count: 166
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-688-13166-2 King Midas And The Golden Touch ($16.00; PLB $15.63; Apr.; 32 pp.; 0-688-13165-4; PLB 0-688-13166-2): The familiar tale of King Midas gets the golden touch in the hands of Craft and Craft (Cupid and Psyche, 1996). The author takes her inspiration from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling, capturing the essence of the tale with the use of pithy dialogue and colorful description. Enchanting in their own right, the illustrations summon the Middle Ages as a setting, and incorporate colors so lavish that when they are lost to the uniform gold spurred by King Midas’s touch, the point of the story is further burnished. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-13165-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
Lunge-Larsen and Preus debut with this story of a flower that blooms for the first time to commemorate the uncommon courage of a girl who saves her people from illness. The girl, an Ojibwe of the northern woodlands, knows she must journey to the next village to get the healing herb, mash-ki- ki, for her people, who have all fallen ill. After lining her moccasins with rabbit fur, she braves a raging snowstorm and crosses a dark frozen lake to reach the village. Then, rather than wait for morning, she sets out for home while the villagers sleep. When she loses her moccasins in the deep snow, her bare feet are cut by icy shards, and bleed with every step until she reaches her home. The next spring beautiful lady slippers bloom from the place where her moccasins were lost, and from every spot her injured feet touched. Drawing on Ojibwe sources, the authors of this fluid retelling have peppered the tale with native words and have used traditional elements, e.g., giving voice to the forces of nature. The accompanying watercolors, with flowing lines, jewel tones, and decorative motifs, give stately credence to the story’s iconic aspects. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-90512-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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