A lively version of a biblical story of wisdom, wits, treachery, and repentance.
The Old Testament story of Joseph, the brother sold into slavery who becomes the pharaoh’s grand vizier, is interpreted in graphic-novel format.
Laff retains the familiar elements of the tale, laying them out in graphic panels. Joseph has special dreams and also becomes an interpreter of dreams. All his brothers are jealous of Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son, leading to his sale to some Ishmaelite traders. He is taken to Egypt, where he becomes useful in a wealthy merchant’s household but is compromised by the merchant’s wife and sent to prison. After nine years, Joseph interprets the dreams of the imprisoned butler and baker of the pharaoh. The lucky butler is released and tells the pharaoh of Joseph when the ruler has his own dreams that need interpretation. Joseph becomes the pharaoh’s top adviser, saving Egypt from famine. In her brightly colored, detailed panels Laff depicts her humans as anthropomorphic animals: the Canaanites, or Hebrews, are rabbits, the Ishmaelite traders are dogs, and the Egyptians are cats. They wear appropriate clothing, and the Egyptian details and backgrounds are particularly elaborate. Joseph’s well-known coat has rainbows, clouds, stars, and fur trimming; it looks an awful lot like a wizard’s cloak, but it is eye-catching, especially in a dark double-page spread, set in Joseph’s cell, when he is dreaming of the sun, moon, and stars.
A lively version of a biblical story of wisdom, wits, treachery, and repentance. (Graphic fiction/religion. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4677-7845-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience.
When siblings Jessie and Evan (The Lemonade War, 2007, and The Lemonade Crime, 2011) accompany their mother on the time-honored midwinter holiday visit to their grandmother’s home in the mountains, the changes are alarming.
Fire damage to the house and Grandma’s inability to recognize Evan are as disquieting as the disappearance of the iron bell, hung long ago by their grandmother on Lowell Hill and traditionally rung at the New Year. Davies keeps a tight focus on the children: Points of view switch between Evan, with his empathetic and emotional approach to understanding his world, and Jessie, for whom routine is essential and change a puzzle to be worked out. When Grandma ventures out into the snow just before twilight, it is Evan who realizes the danger and manages to find a way to rescue her. Jessie, determined to solve the mystery of the missing bell, enlists the help of Grandma's young neighbor Maxwell, with his unusual habitual gestures and his surprising ability to solve jigsaw puzzles. She is unprepared, however, for the terror of seeing the neighbor boys preparing a mechanical torture device to tear a live frog to pieces. Each of the siblings brings a personal resilience and heroism to the resolution.
A fine emotional stretch within reach of the intended audience. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-56737-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
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Readers will enjoy this sequel from a plot perspective and will learn how to play-act a trial, though they may not engage...
This sequel to The Lemonade War (2007), picking up just a few days later, focuses on how the fourth graders take justice into their own hands after learning that the main suspect in the case of the missing lemonade-stand money now owns the latest in game-box technology.
Siblings Evan and Jessie (who skipped third grade because of her precocity) are sure Scott Spencer stole the $208 from Evan’s shorts and want revenge, especially as Scott’s new toy makes him the most popular kid in class, despite his personal shortcomings. Jessie’s solution is to orchestrate a full-blown trial by jury after school, while Evan prefers to challenge Scott in basketball. Neither channel proves satisfactory for the two protagonists (whose rational and emotional reactions are followed throughout the third-person narrative), though, ultimately, the matter is resolved. Set during the week of Yom Kippur, the story raises beginning questions of fairness, integrity, sin and atonement. Like John Grisham's Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer (2010), much of the book is taken up with introducing courtroom proceedings for a fourth-grade level of understanding. Chapter headings provide definitions (“due diligence,” “circumstantial evidence,” etc.) and explanation cards/documents drawn by Jessie are interspersed.
Readers will enjoy this sequel from a plot perspective and will learn how to play-act a trial, though they may not engage with the characters enough to care about how the justice actually pans out. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: May 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-27967-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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