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THE REMEMBERING STONE

Dreams become a leitmotif in this story of personal and cultural identity—with some muddled success. Ana and her mother live in the US, but Ana knows that her mother dreams of returning to Costa Rica, where she grew up, and dreams and aspirations—or the lack thereof—inform her conversations with others in the neighborhood. A volcanic stone from Costa Rica triggers a dream—the sleeping kind—in which Ana, in the form of a blackbird, flies to Costa Rica and sees her grandparents, triggering a dream—the aspirational kind—that she and her mother will one day go to Costa Rica together. The story never really comes together, as the exploration of goals and aspirations shifts awkwardly into the dream-exploration of Ana’s ancestral home; the reader is left with some appreciation of the need for goals and of the need for an understanding of cultural heritage, but here, the mixing of the two dilutes both messages. Ochre-tinged paintings feature flat perspectives and a heavy, almost naïve style, relying on light to convey emotion. Ultimately, the whole thing falls flat, despite good intentions. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: April 2, 2004

ISBN: 0-374-36242-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Melanie Kroupa/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2004

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DIARY OF A SPIDER

The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-06-000153-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005

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BECAUSE YOUR DADDY LOVES YOU

Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: May 23, 2005

ISBN: 0-618-00361-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005

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