The Irish potato famine of the 1840s, as seen through a little girl’s eyes. Young Katie misses her Da, who left Ireland to go to Boston more than two Christmases ago. Most of what she eats at Grand Da’s is potatoes, not with milk and onion and butter, as Mam used to make, but plain boiled. Katie wishes the potatoes away, and is horrified when they begin to turn black and mushy. Katie believes it is her fault, and guilt gnaws at her like the hunger, especially when Grannie takes sick and they have to sell Pig. But Da sends money for Katie to come to America, and she and her cousin Brian take that cramped and tumultuous voyage. When she arrives and Da takes her to her aunt’s home, her fear and guilt come tumbling out at the sight of Aunt Meg’s potatoes, made like Mam’s. Her father soothes her and assures her it isn’t her fault; words cannot make bad things happen. While the resolution is a bit pat, the famine is put in terms that small children can understand, and they will recognize Katie’s fear. Her grandparents’ cottage, the verdant and stricken land, the miserable trip to Galway and then across the ocean, and finally her reunion with her Da are rendered by Caldecott-winner McCully (Mirette on the High Wire, 1991) in fine soft pictures, a misty-moisty, gray-and-green palette, brightened by Katie’s—and her father’s—red hair. (author’s note) (Picture book/historical fiction. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-8037-2478-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2002
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the...
An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades.
This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: “Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie’s eye fell off and rolled across the floor.” The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds’ drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald’s feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows “strong hearts and minds,” as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value.Pub Date: March 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5692-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A Cinderella parody features the off-the-wall, whang-dang Texas hyperbole of Ketteman (The Year of No More Corn, 1993, etc.) and the insouciance of Warhola, who proves himself only too capable of creating a fairy godcow; that she's so appealingly whimsical makes it easy to accept the classic tale's inversions. The protagonist is Bubba, appropriately downtrodden and overworked by his wicked stepdaddy and loathsome brothers Dwayne and Milton, who spend their days bossing him around. The other half of the happy couple is Miz Lurleen, who owns ``the biggest spread west of the Brazos.'' She craves male companionship to help her work the place, ``and it wouldn't hurt if he was cute as a cow's ear, either.'' There are no surprises in this version except in the hilarious way the premise plays itself out and in Warhola's delightful visual surprises. When Lurleen tracks the bootless Bubba down, ``Dwayne and Milton and their wicked daddy threw chicken fits.'' Bubba and babe, hair as big as a Texas sun, ride off to a life of happy ranching, and readers will be proud to have been along for the courtship. (Picture book/folklore. 6-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-590-25506-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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